Pan-India SIR: Election Commission to meet CEOs, seeks inputs on other eligibility papers

The EC’s SIR order has been challenged through a batch of petitions in the Supreme Court, where the next hearing is scheduled for September 8. Apart from challenging the EC’s authority to conduct a check of citizenship, the petitioners have also questioned the rationale behind exclusion of these commonly-held documents.

According to sources, the EC is likely to order the SIR for the rest of the country with January 1, 2026 set as the qualifying date — those who are 18 years old by January 1 next year can apply. In its June 24 order, the EC had said it would conduct the SIR for the entire country, but rolled out the exercise for Bihar first as Assembly elections are due in the state. For the remaining states and UTs, it had said orders would be issued in due course.

Now, all CEOs have been asked to make presentations on September 10 with details on the number of electors in their states/ UTs, the last intensive revision, and suggestions on additional documents that electors can submit, sources said. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi are likely to meet the CEOs at the EC’s India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) in Dwarka.

In its June order, the EC had said that an intensive revision of electoral rolls was last conducted in 2003 and that due to urbanisation and migration, there was a possibility of repeated entries in the electoral rolls. “Thus, the situation warrants an intensive verification drive to verify each person before enrolment as an elector,” it had said.

The electoral rolls are summarily revised every year and before each election, with additions and deletions made to the existing rolls. This time, the EC is preparing the rolls afresh. In the case of Bihar, it issued a new enumeration form and declaration, with a list of 11 documents to prove eligibility. While all the existing 7.89 crore electors were required to submit the forms, those who were registered after 2003 — when the last intensive revision of rolls was carried out in Bihar — were required to submit eligibility documents as well.

In the draft stage of the Bihar SIR, 65 lakh names have been left out of the rolls, with Booth Level Officers marking them as either dead, permanently shifted, untraceable or registered at multiple places. The electors had a one-month period to file claims and objections that ended on September 1. While the Electoral Registration Officers are scheduled to dispose of the claims and objections until September 25, the final electoral roll of Bihar is due to be published on September 30.

For the SIR exercise in the rest of the country, the exact timelines, documents and cut-off dates will be known when the EC issues an order. For the annual Special Summary Revision, which also has the qualifying date of January 1, the EC starts preparing in August every year. For instance, the 2025 SSR exercise started with pre-revision activities from August 20 to October 28, 2024; it was followed by publication of draft rolls on October 29; claims and objections could be filed from October 29 to November 28, 2024; and final roll was published on January 6 this year.