Over three months after announcing plans for special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across all states and UTs, the Election Commission (EC) is yet to fix dates for a nationwide exercise — a delay that officials say is eating into the window for routine annual special summary revision, usually completed by December-end.
An intensive revision is a full-scale rebuilding of electoral rolls, which involves house-to-house visits, recording all eligible voters afresh. This is usually done when existing rolls are outdated or after exercises such as delimitation.
A Special Summary Revision (SSR), however, is EC’s routine annual update of rolls. Draft rolls are published and citizens submit claims for additions, deletions or corrections.
Under the EC’s standard calendar, the SSR begins around August and the draft rolls are published in September or October. The final rolls, reflecting qualifying date of January 1, are released in January first week.
The summary revision’s schedule is usually out well in advance. For instance, in 2024, it was issued on August 7, and in 2015, on July 31. Typically, by this time each year, SSR activities are in full swing. This year, it is yet to start as the EC has announced its intention to revise rolls intensively instead, without giving out a schedule.
In its June 24 order, the EC had decided that electoral rolls pan-India would be prepared afresh, instead of being updated like it is done for SSR. The nationwide SIR was to begin with Bihar, which will go into two-phased Assembly polls next month.
In Bihar, as per the SIR order, Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) were supposed to go door-to-door to verify details of all 7.89 crore registered voters, asking each to fill out enumeration forms. The final roll which came out on September 30 listed 7.42 crore electors.
Asked about the rollout in other states, CEC Gyanesh Kumar said Monday, “If you see the June 24 order, the EC has already taken the decision of conducting a pan-India SIR. Work is on. The Commission will hold a meeting to decide the dates for states and UTs.”
However, sources told The Indian Express that the poll panel has not yet finalised the schedule or guidelines for SIR for the rest of the country, even as its June 24 order faces a legal challenge in the Supreme Court. In the meantime, the EC is also yet to decide whether it will go ahead with the annual SSR instead.
Under SSR, citizens get a month to file claims and objections after the draft is published, followed by another month for Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to verify and finalise entries. For instance, the 2025 SSR cycle began in August 2024, draft rolls were published on October 29, and final rolls were issued on January 6 this year.
But this time, officials said, no guidelines have yet been issued, besides Bihar, for either SSR or SIR in any state. At a conference of Chief Electoral Officers in Delhi on September 10, the EC had instructed state CEOs to “get ready” for the SIR within 10-15 days. Since then, several states have published the rolls of their last intensive revision on their websites.
In Bihar SIR, those registered after 2003 had to submit documents proving eligibility as electors, as part of EC’s attempt to prepare a roll from scratch. State CEOs have been told to prepare for a similar exercise once the EC announces the schedule.