The Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls seeks to balance electoral integrity with inclusion. Critically examine.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is a house-to-house re-verification of electoral rolls. The ECI orders it under Article 324 and Section 21 of the RP Act, 1950 [1][2]. Phase-II alone covered about 51 crore electors [1]. Its goal of integrity is legitimate, but so far it has served integrity better than inclusion.

Strengthening electoral integrity

• Legal footing: the Supreme Court upheld the SIR. It found a "direct nexus" with free and fair elections [3].
• Cleaner rolls: Bihar found about 22 lakh deceased and 7 lakh multiple enrolments [4]. Removing them curbs impersonation.
• Structural drivers: the ECI's stated reasons are urbanisation, migration, unreported deaths and ineligible entries [1].

Inclusion deficits

• Migrants hit hardest: about 36 lakh Bihar electors were marked shifted or untraceable. This was the largest deletion category [4]. Seasonal workers who are "ordinarily resident" at home can drop off both rolls.
• Burden reversed: existing voters had to prove eligibility again. Aadhaar was admitted only after a Supreme Court order [5]. This hurts the poor, who lack birth certificates.
• Unequal error costs: a dead name wrongly kept can be removed later. A living voter wrongly deleted loses the vote for good, which dilutes Article 326.
• Institutional credibility: reports of a rift among Election Commissioners strained public trust [6].

Course correction: welcome but late

• On 26 September 2026 the ECI stopped physical hearings for unmapped voters. It limited the Form 6 declaration to the current SIR period and announced a special enrolment drive [6].
• However, the SIR is already complete in 20 States/UTs [6]. Excluded voters must still apply again through the ERO.

Way forward

• Publish booth-wise deletion lists with reasons.
• Write notice, hearing and appeal steps into the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
• Run targeted enrolment camps in migrant-heavy districts, and accept widely held documents nationwide.

The SIR rightly cleans the rolls, but its methods have shifted the cost of errors onto vulnerable citizens. If the ECI makes deletions transparent, sets fixed procedures and runs proactive re-enrolment, integrity and inclusion can reinforce each other. That would honour the promise of universal adult franchise and advance SDG 16.7 on inclusive, representative decision-making.