"Cleansing electoral rolls and protecting the franchise of eligible voters are competing imperatives." Discuss this with reference to the Special Intensive Revision.

Article 326 guarantees universal adult suffrage, while Article 324 makes the Election Commission of India (ECI) responsible for accurate electoral rolls. The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has led to about 13 crore deletions nationwide [1]. It shows how the push for a "pure" roll can clash with a citizen's right to stay on it.

Why cleansing the rolls is necessary

• Integrity of the vote: Dead, shifted and duplicate entries allow impersonation and dilute genuine votes. The ECI says deletions are limited to deaths, permanent shifts, duplicates and untraceable electors [3].
• Legal backing: Section 21(3) of the RPA, 1950 permits special revision. The Supreme Court upheld the SIR in May 2026 [5].
• Scale of correction: Bihar's roll fell from 7.89 crore to about 7.42 crore electors [2].

Why the franchise of eligible voters is at risk

• Fluid deletion counts: About 65 lakh names were left out of Bihar's draft roll. Another 21.53 lakh were later added through Form 6 [2]. Draft figures alone can overstate or hide wrongful exclusion.
• Burden of proof: Document demands hit migrants, the urban poor and women who moved after marriage hardest. These are the groups least able to file claims on time.
• Document disputes: The Court had to direct that Aadhaar be accepted as a 12th identity document, though not as proof of citizenship [4].
• Opacity: Opposition leaders are seeking the Election Commissioners' notings and objections. They allege the CEC acted "arbitrarily and unilaterally" [1]. Arbitrary action can breach Article 14 even when the power itself is lawful.

Reconciling the two

• Reasoned orders for every deletion, backed by the Section 24 appeal route [2].
• Publish draft-versus-final deletion data for each state and each booth.
• Accept Aadhaar at the claims stage in every phase, and re-verify door to door before any deletion.
• Let the courts examine internal records in chambers. This keeps the ECI accountable without discouraging frank internal debate.
• Rebuild trust in appointments. PRS notes that the 2023 Act gives the government a 2–1 majority on the selection panel [6].

Cleansing and inclusion pull against each other in practice, but they serve one goal: a roll that includes every eligible citizen and nobody else. The SIR should be judged less by how many names it removes than by how few eligible voters it wrongly excludes. A transparent process that gives reasons and is easy for voters to use can make purity and franchise support each other. That fulfils the Articles 325–326 promise of one inclusive roll.