Inter-state and intra-city migration challenges the address-based design of electoral registration in India. Suggest reforms.

India's electoral roll is tied to place. Section 19 of the Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1950 lets a person enrol only where they are "ordinarily resident", and Section 17 bars enrolment in more than one constituency [2]. That design suits a settled population, but it struggles with a mobile one, as the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) shows.

How migration strains the address-based design

• Inter-state migrants keep their roots in their home state but are often away when officials come to verify. The ECI has flagged that over 30 crore electors did not vote in 2019, and it proposed remote voting for domestic migrants as a result [8].
• Intra-city churn: renters and slum dwellers move often within a city. Each move needs a Form 8 shifting application [4], and many never file one.
• Absence treated as exit: Delhi's SIR flagged 47.56 lakh of 1.45 crore electors (~32.8%) as not returned, absent, shifted, dead or duplicate [1]. A voter can be marked untraceable after just 2–3 Booth Level Officer (BLO) visits [6]. A worker away on a month-long assignment can miss all of them [1].
• Costly re-entry: an existing voter who re-applies on Form 6 as a "new" elector risks a false declaration, punishable under Section 31 [2]. In ADR v. ECI (2026), the Supreme Court upheld SIR but held that an enrolled voter's presumption of validity can be rebutted [5]. That puts the burden on those least able to prove where they live.

Reforms

• Legal: amend the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 under Section 28 of the RPA to create a lawful "temporarily absent" category, instead of using administrative tags [2][3].
• Procedural: enforce the ECI's own promise of notice and hearing before every deletion other than a confirmed death [7]. Publish deletions booth by booth, split by reason [6].
• Accountability: commission an independent audit of SIR deletions. None is on record so far [6].
• Portability: use a nationally de-duplicated roll, so that a move becomes a transfer and not a deletion followed by a fresh entry.
• Remote voting: revive the Remote EVM prototype, which can serve up to 72 constituencies from one booth, after consensus on secrecy and Model Code of Conduct concerns [8].
• Outreach: schedule BLO visits in evenings and at weekends, and hold enrolment camps at worksites through labour departments.

A clean roll and an inclusive roll do not have to be traded off; the real problem is a registration system built on a fixed home. Making registration portable, with every deletion subject to due process, would keep the roll accurate without disenfranchising mobile citizens. It would honour Article 326's promise of universal adult suffrage and SDG 16.7's goal of inclusive decision-making.