Special Intensive Revision: ECI to Commence Pan India SIR Drive After Bihar, Schedule Awaited

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has embarked upon a big and politically charged exercise: a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The massive exercise, directed through an order of June 24, 2025, is already underway in Bihar and is set to be rolled out across the country; the schedule for the exercise in the rest of the country to be notified in due course.

Election Commission of India in its 24th June order on Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls stated, "Commission has now decided to begin the Special Intensive Revision in the entire country for the discharge of its constitutional mandate to protect the integrity of… pic.twitter.com/MaIxGenSat

— ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2025

The primary function of the SIR, as envisaged by the ECI, is to ensure its constitutional mandate to "maintain the purity of electoral rolls." This involves a meticulous, house-to-house enumeration process by Booth Level Officers (BLOs). The objective is to ensure the purity and correctness of the voter rolls by identifying and including all eligible citizens while simultaneously removing errors such as double entries, dead individuals, address-changed individuals, and any other ineligible entries.

Rationale for the Intensive Revision

The ECI has listed some valid reasons for undertaking this overall revamp. These are the phenomenon of sudden urbanization, which predisposes to huge population movements; frequent internal migration; continuous addition of fresh eligible voter population in the form of young citizens to the electoral rolls; instances of under-reporting of deaths, leaving the voter on the rolls after death; and fears of addition of names of "foreign illegal immigrants."

While the ECI claims the SIR is a normal and routine statutory exercise under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and a necessary component in the pursuit of clean electoral rolls, the exercise has not been free of controversy. In Bihar, opposition parties have raised serious objections. They have raised concerns about the mass disenfranchisement of real voters and equated it with a proxy National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise, which has seen controversy in the past. These concerns have also led to petitions against the ECI's order, pending before the Supreme Court.

Bihar Pilot Phase and Clarifications by ECI

In Bihar, where SIR is being used, the cutoff date for receipt of forms of enumeration was July 25, 2025. The state draft electoral roll is slated for release on August 1, 2025, and the final electoral roll on September 30, 2025. The ECI has reported in the public domain that it has detected serious anomalies in Bihar's existing electoral rolls, such as deceased voters, migrated voters, and duplicate voters.

Addressing the fears raised by various stakeholders, the ECI has categorically spelled out its process. It has been claimed that for verification of identification while conducting SIR, Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, and ration cards are being utilized. Significantly, the Commission has clarified that these documents are being utilized merely to establish identity and not citizenship. This has been done to allay fears that the process of revision can be utilized to target or exclude any specific demographic segment on the basis of citizenship. The pan-India roll-out of this mass exercise will be closely watched as the ECI embarks on implementing its vision of having completely updated and error-free electoral rolls in the country.