Election Commission Orders Special Summary Revision of Voter Lists in 17 States and UTs
The Election Commission of India (ECI) ordered a Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls (voter lists) in 17 States and Union Territories, including Tamil Nadu, with 1 January 2027 as the qualifying date. (The qualifying date is the date on which a person's age and residence are checked to decide if they can be enrolled.)
The 17 are: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
Schedule: polling stations to be rationalised by 2 November; draft rolls published on 12 November 2026; claims and objections accepted till 11 December; these to be decided by 28 December; final rolls published on 4 January 2027.
The exercise is held under Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. It aims to add young and first-time voters, correct errors, and remove dead, shifted and duplicate entries.
People whose names were removed during the earlier Special Intensive Revision (SIR) can apply again using Form 6 till 11 December. Applications can be made online through the voter service portal or the ECINET app.
States where an SIR is going on or has just ended (Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana) will get separate schedules. Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will be notified later because of winter weather.
Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls
An electoral roll is the official list of voters for a constituency, and only people on it can vote. The Election Commission keeps this list up to date through different kinds of revision. A summary revision is the routine, lighter kind: the existing list is published as a draft, and citizens file claims and objections to add, correct or delete names. An intensive revision, including the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), is the heavy kind, where officials go house to house and the list is rebuilt almost from scratch. A Special Summary Revision is a summary revision ordered at a special time, outside the regular cycle.
Many of the 17 States and UTs went through an SIR earlier. The SSR is the lighter follow-up: it uses the post-SIR roll as the draft and lets people, including those removed during the SIR, file Form 6 to get back on the list before the final roll of 4 January 2027.
Representation of the People Act, 1950: The Law Behind Voter Lists and Seats
The Representation of the People Act, 1950 (RPA 1950) is the law that decides who can be a voter, how voter lists are made and corrected, and how seats are allotted. It handles the "getting ready" part of elections, while the RPA 1951 handles the actual conduct of elections. Article 326 of the Constitution gives every citizen aged 18 or above the right to vote, and the RPA 1950 turns that right into a working system of voter registration.
The ECI has ordered this SSR under Section 21 of the RPA 1950, using 1 January 2027 as the qualifying date under Section 14. Anyone turning 18 by that date and ordinarily resident in a constituency can apply to be enrolled.
- Type: Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls; 17 States/UTs covered
- Qualifying date: 1 January 2027
- Draft rolls: 12 November 2026; claims and objections: till 11 December 2026; disposal: by 28 December 2026; final rolls: 4 January 2027
- Legal basis: Section 21, RPA 1950; Article 324 (ECI's superintendence of rolls); Article 326 and Sections 16 and 19, RPA 1950 (eligibility)
- Four qualifying dates since the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021: 1 January, 1 April, 1 July, 1 October
- Forms: Form 6 (inclusion), Form 7 (objection/deletion), Form 8 (correction/shifting)
- Tamil Nadu SIR removed over 97 lakh names: about 27 lakh deceased, about 66 lakh shifted, about 3.4 lakh duplicates
- Separate schedules later for Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana; Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Ladakh later due to weather