"Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls balances purity of rolls against the universal franchise." Critically examine with reference to recent experience in West Bengal.

Article 324 makes the ECI responsible for electoral rolls, and Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 permits special revision [5]. West Bengal's SIR sought cleaner rolls, but about 38 lakh appeals before 19 tribunals [1] show purity being bought at the franchise's cost unless redress keeps pace.

SIR as a tool for purity

• Constitutional mandate: removing dead, shifted and duplicate entries keeps adult suffrage under Article 326 limited to eligible citizens and protects genuine votes.
• Appeal layer: on Supreme Court direction, 19 appellate tribunals headed by retired Calcutta HC judges hear inclusion and exclusion disputes [1].
• Judicial correction: under Article 142, the Court ordered appeals decided before set cut-off dates to be added through a supplementary revised roll [2].

Where the franchise loses

• Backlog: 19 tribunals face about 38 lakh appeals, and judges themselves complained of slow disposal [1].
• Pending appeal means no vote: the Court held mere pendency does not entitle an excluded person to vote [2], shifting the burden from state to citizen.
• Fragile forum: four judges, including former Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and now Biswajit Basu, have resigned [1]; each exit stalls a tribunal.
• Conflict of interest: Basu also accepted a State post chairing the Commission on Institutional Corruption [1]. A 2013 parliamentary committee report listed a ten-year cooling-off period for retired judges taking tribunal posts [3]; in 2025 the Supreme Court struck down Tribunals Reforms Act provisions on tenure and service conditions for undermining independence [4].
• Social cost: migrants and the poor, with fewer documents, are likely hit hardest.

Way forward

• Add benches of serving judicial officers; hear exclusion appeals first.
• Publish constituency-wise pendency data.
• Give SIR appeals a statutory footing in the RPA with timelines and a judicial cooling-off rule.

West Bengal shows that purity and universal franchise can coexist only when deletion and redress move at the same speed. A time-bound, adequately staffed statutory appeal system would keep the SIR faithful to Article 326 and the ideal of no voter left behind.