The controversy surrounding the SIR notice to a decorated war veteran exposes gaps in administrative proportionality in India's electoral machinery. Discuss.

Q. The controversy surrounding the SIR notice to a decorated war veteran exposes gaps in administrative proportionality in India's electoral machinery. Discuss. (15 marks, 250-350 words)

Administrative proportionality requires that the burden placed on a citizen be no greater than the regulatory purpose demands. The January 2026 notice asking Admiral Arun Prakash (retd.), an 81-year-old Vir Chakra awardee of the 1971 war, to appear in person during Goa's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) shows how automated verification can lose that calibration.

The trigger: automation without context - SIR is a door-to-door revision conducted under Article 324 and Section 21, Representation of the People Act, 1950 [1]; pre-filled enumeration forms distributed by over 5.3 lakh BLOs are machine-mapped to the existing roll [2]. - The Admiral's form lacked mandatory particulars — EPIC number, relative's name, Assembly Constituency, part and serial number — so the BLO application could not link it, classified it as "unmapped", and auto-generated a personal-appearance notice [3].

Gaps in proportionality exposed - Undifferentiated burden: identical scrutiny for a long-settled elderly elector and a fresh enrollee, with no risk-graded verification. - Misplaced cost: the incompleteness arose from legacy form and database gaps, yet the consequence fell on the elector. - Mode of compliance: physical appearance as the default remedy — heaviest on the aged, disabled and migrant voters, precisely those the 2025–26 requirement of documentary birth proof already strains. - Communication deficit: the notice read as a challenge to identity rather than a request to complete a field.

Where safeguards held - The draft roll was published for public scrutiny with a claims-and-objections window [4], preserving natural justice before any deletion. - The Electoral Registration Officer clarified promptly and waived appearance once the form was completed [3] — evidence of decentralised responsiveness. - ECI's revision of SIR schedules created room to absorb such friction [5].

The episode is less an indictment of SIR than a case for proportionate design: risk-based flagging, self-service or doorstep correction of clerical gaps, and notices worded as assistance rather than suspicion. Purifying the roll and protecting the dignity of the elector are complementary, not competing, obligations — both flow from the promise of universal adult suffrage under Article 326.

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Sources: 1. The Representation of the People Act, 1950 (India Code, Act No. 43 of 1950) — Section 21: preparation and revision of electoral rolls, ECI-directed intensive revision 2. Special Intensive Revision (SIR) Phase-II begins in 9 States and 3 UTs, PIB/ECI — 5.3 lakh BLOs, pre-filled enumeration forms, house-to-house distribution 3. "EC clarifies on SIR notice to former Navy chief" — The Hindu, 13 January 2026 (news report) — missing mandatory particulars, "unmapped" classification, ERO clarification and waiver of appearance 4. Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Goa — SIR Press Note — publication of Goa Draft Electoral Roll 2026 and the claims-and-objections period 5. ECI Revises Schedule for Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls, PIB — extension of the SIR timeline