Compare the methodology of earlier Special Intensive Revisions with the 2025-26 exercise. What safeguards are needed to balance roll purification with inclusion?

Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 lets the ECI specially revise rolls "in such manner as it may think fit" [1]. The ECI has run an SIR eight times before [2]. The 2025-26 nationwide SIR has the same aim, a pure roll, but it changes who must prove eligibility.

Earlier SIRs vs 2025-26: Methodology

• Base roll: Earlier SIRs, the last in 2002-04, built fresh rolls through house-to-house enumeration [2]. The 2025-26 SIR instead uses the 1 January 2003 roll as its reference. Voters already on it give only an extract, which covers about 4.96 crore Bihar electors [3].
• Burden of proof: Voters who joined after 2003 must produce one of 11 listed documents. Aadhaar and EPIC were initially excluded [4]. This shifts the burden of proof from the State to the elector.
• Scale: The exercise runs in three phases across about 26 States and 6 UTs within roughly a year, and it depends on BLO field visits [2].
• Technology: In Phase II, voters could fill the Enumeration Form online, which helped urban voters and temporary migrants [4].
• Outcome: Bihar's draft roll left out about 65 lakh names, more than half marked "shifted/absent". The final roll showed a net fall of about 47 lakh, from 7.89 to 7.42 crore [4].
• Judicial correction: The SC ordered ECI to publish deleted names with reasons, allowed Aadhaar for claims, and in May 2026 upheld ECI's power to run the SIR [5].

Safeguards for Purification with Inclusion

• Transparency by default: Publish deletion reasons, searchable by EPIC number, in every phase [5].
• Inclusive documents: Accept Aadhaar as proof of identity and residence at enumeration, not only at the claims stage [5].
• Right forum: Send citizenship doubts to the authority under the Citizenship Act, as the May 2026 judgment directed [5]. BLOs should verify residence only.
• Data-led clean-up: Remove dead and duplicate entries using death registers and de-duplication software. This needs no citizenship test.
• Migrant-friendly transfers: Carry a voter's record forward when they move instead of making them re-enrol as new voters.
• Gross-net reporting: Publish deletions, restorations and additions separately.

The 2025-26 SIR added scale and technology, but using a legacy roll as the anchor puts more risk on mobile and post-2003 voters. Purification and inclusion go together. Shared burden of proof, transparency and judicial checks can help ECI deliver Article 326's universal adult suffrage and SDG 16.7's inclusive decision-making.