Clean and accurate electoral rolls are the bedrock of representative democracy. Evaluate the challenges and significance of the nationwide SIR exercise launched by ECI in 2025-26.

Q. Clean and accurate electoral rolls are the bedrock of representative democracy. Evaluate the challenges and significance of the nationwide SIR exercise launched by ECI in 2025-26. (15 marks, 250-350 words)

The electoral roll is the operative register of universal adult franchise under Article 326; its purity decides whether the right to vote is real or nominal. The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) launched by the ECI in 2025-26, the largest roll exercise attempted in India, is on balance a necessary corrective — though its execution carries genuine exclusion risks.

Significance for electoral integrity - Firm legal footing: SIR flows from Article 324 and Section 21(3), RP Act 1950, which permits the ECI to direct a special revision at any time [2]; the Supreme Court on 27 May 2026 held the exercise within the ECI's statutory mandate and consistent with free and fair elections [1]. - Purification at scale: door-to-door BLO enumeration catches deceased, shifted and duplicate entries that form-based summary revision misses; the completed Bihar pilot supplied the template [3] before Phase-II extended it to 9 States and 3 UTs [4]. - Strengthened supervision: Special Roll Observers deployed in major States add an independent audit layer [5], while random sample audits of deletions and public draft publication build procedural credibility [1].

Challenges in execution - Exclusion risk: documentary proof of birth and parentage burdens migrants, tribals and poor households; a wrongful deletion silently disenfranchises a citizen. - Administrative strain: BLOs must cover roughly a million booths on compressed timelines, inviting data error and fatigue. - Timing and federal optics: schedules were repeatedly revised around the election calendar [7], and phasing that defers poll-bound States invites charges of selectivity. - Trust deficit: sustained litigation and party objections make a transparent objection window and reasoned ERO notices indispensable [6].

SIR is therefore a defensible and overdue reform whose legal basis is now settled and whose safeguards, if honestly applied, outweigh the harm of an inflated roll. The way forward lies in calibration — accepting flexible proof, strengthening appeals, and time-bound restoration of wrongly deleted names — so that roll purity and inclusion advance together, as the ECI's Article 324 mandate demands.

(~320 words)

Sources: 1. Supreme Court of India, judgment dated 27 May 2026 (2026 INSC 564), Association for Democratic Reforms v. Election Commission of India — SIR held within ECI's statutory mandate under RP Act 1950 and Article 324; internal quality checks and sample audits of deletions 2. The Representation of the People Act, 1950 (Act 43 of 1950), Section 21 — India Code — ECI's power to direct a special revision of electoral rolls at any time 3. PIB — Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls in Bihar Successfully Completed — Bihar as the completed pilot phase 4. PIB — Special Intensive Revision (SIR) Phase-II begins in 9 States and 3 UTs — scale and coverage of Phase-II 5. PIB — ECI deploys Special Roll Observers for SIR of Electoral Rolls in major States — independent supervisory layer over the revision 6. PIB — ECI's SIR of Electoral Rolls Being Conducted in Phases with Multiple Safeguards to Protect Eligible Voters — objection window, grievance redressal and safeguards against wrongful deletion 7. PIB — ECI Revises Schedule for SIR of Electoral Rolls in 6 States/UT — schedule revisions driven by the election calendar