UPSC Key: Supreme Court upholds SIR, VB-G Ram G rules, and Dowry

— Know about SIR, reason for introducing it, and concerns related to it

— What are the important articles related to citizenship?

— How is citizenship determined in India?

— What are the recent amendments made to acquiring citizenship in India?

— What are the roles and responsibilities of the ECI?

— What is Article 324?

— What is the court ruling in the Lal Babu Hussein v Electoral Registration Officer?

— Electoral roll forms the “foundation of the democratic process”. Elaborate.

Key Takeaways:

— Upholding the legal validity of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being carried out by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Supreme Court said Wednesday the exercise is “intended to secure the constitutional mandate of free and fair elections by ensuring that the roll on which the election rests is accurate and reliable”, and that the ECI has “provided cogent justifications warranting the… process”.

— The bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, ruling on a clutch of petitions challenging the SIR exercise which began with Bihar, said it “breathes life” into the mandate for fair polls.

— It directed the ECI to refer the names of those deleted from the 2003 rolls following the SIR of rolls to the competent authority within four weeks “for adjudication of their citizenship”, noting that the poll panel’s “determination, being confined to electoral purposes, cannot assume finality on the question of citizenship”.

— It said the SIR exercise was “not in conflict” with the Representation of the People Act, 1950, or the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, but was “undertaken to advance the very objective which Part XV (dealing with the framework for election) of the Constitution is designed to protect”.

— It said “a perusal” of the ECI’s June 24, 2025 order announcing the SIR “lays bare two major reasons” for the exercise: “First, a demographic change due to rapid urbanisation and migration in the last 20 years since the intensive revision in 2003 which has led to repeated, multiple and defective entries on the electoral roll.

— Second, the mandate of the Commission under Article 326 to ensure that only Indian citizens are on the electoral roll.” The Commission, it said, has thus “provided cogent justifications warranting the SIR process”.

From the Front page: Yet, SC tells EC to report deleted, sets stage for citizenship test

— While the court underlined that the SIR was restricted to electoral eligibility and deletion from the voter’s list “does not amount to a declaration that the individual is not a citizen of India,” it also directed that those excluded from the list will face “adjudication of their citizenship” before the next elections.

— The Ministry of Home Affairs, under the Citizenship Act and the Foreigners’ Tribunals, looks into aspects of citizenship contestations. The court’s order giving the EC a four-week window to report the deletions essentially shifts the burden on the deleted individual to prove their citizenship.

— The petitioners had argued that voters whose names were included on electoral rolls were entitled to a presumption of citizenship, as per a 1995 ruling in Lal Babu Hussein v Electoral Registration Officer.

— While the Court acknowledged the precedent’s foundational principle that an entry in the electoral roll, as an official act, carries a presumption of regularity, it distinguished it from the current case. The Court held that the presumption is evidentiary and rebuttable, and not a “conclusive legal fiction” or a “perpetual guarantee against scrutiny.”

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From the Editorial Page: Court order hands EC a clean chit. But SIR’s deleted still await justice

— Ashok Lavasa writes: Before we look at the order and its implications, it must be understood that this SC order doesn’t consider issues such as logical discrepancies or the inability of the 27 lakh deleted voters in phase two of the SIR to avail of the appellate process.

— It examines the constitutional authority of the ECI in conducting the SIR, the procedure followed, the documents prescribed for eligibility, and the scope of its inquiry into citizenship. It framed the following issues for consideration.

• Whether the ECI has the power to conduct the impugned SIR?
• Whether the SIR is founded on a legitimate purpose, and whether the measures adopted are proportionate to the object sought to be achieved?
• Whether the procedure adopted is contrary to, or in violation of, the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960?
• Whether, in the exercise of its constitutional mandate of preparation and maintenance of ERs, the ECI is empowered to scrutinise the citizenship status of persons seeking inclusion or continuation in the ER?

— The SC sees the SIR standing at the “intersection of two constitutional concerns” of including all eligible citizens and that the ER “must reflect the true composition of the political community”.

— The SC gives a clean chit to the ECI on all counts, holding the SIR not to be in “direct conflict with the RP Act and the 1960 Rules”. Instead, it states that the exercise is “undertaken to advance the very objective which Part XV of the Constitution is designed to protect”.

— Even on the question of citizenship, which was the most contentious part of the SIR, the SC states that the ECI is “empowered, in the exercise of its constitutional mandate, to undertake a limited enquiry into citizenship for the purpose of satisfying itself as to eligibility for inclusion in the electoral roll.”

— However, it holds that “such an enquiry does not amount to a determination of citizenship in the strict sense”.

Do You Know:

— The term ‘SIR’ has been trending across India… and along with it a lot of questions and confusion. The exercise first began in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections and has now expanded to 13 states and Union Territories in the country.

— SIR, or Special Intensive Revision, is a large-scale verification exercise that the ECI undertakes when it believes the routine annual “Summary Revision” is not enough to clean the voter rolls. It involves house-to-house enumeration, pre-filled forms, online submissions, and fresh verification of old voter data.

— Article 324 of the Indian Constitution grants ECI ‘plenary powers’ to supervise and update electoral rolls. Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, also allows the Commission to order an intensive revision whenever it finds inaccuracies in the existing rolls.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Special Intensive Revision (SIR): Why is it important? Why ECI is doing it now and what you need to do

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(1) With reference to India, consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2021) 

1. There is only one citizenship and one domicile.

2. A citizen by birth only can become the Head of State.

3. A foreigner once granted the citizenship cannot be deprived of it under any circumstances.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) 1 and 3

(d) 2 and 3

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

To enhance the quality of democracy in India the Election Commission of India has proposed electoral reforms in 2016. What are the suggested reforms and how far are they significant to make democracy successful? (UPSC CSE 2017)

Express Investigation: EU reports flag gaps in VFS visa centres: ‘Mishandling personal data to misleading fees’

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

What’s the ongoing story: At the centre of almost all Schengen visa applications is VFS Global, the Zurich-and-Dubai-headquartered visa processing giant that serves as the gateway between India and Europe.

For the first time, questions have been raised on how this gateway functions after revelations in 150 inspection reports by European authorities covering VFS Global visa centres across 20 EU member states from 2020-2025.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is a visa?

— What is a Schengen visa?

— What are the different types of visas?

— What are the concerns associated with outsourcing sovereign functions like visa processing to private entities?

— What is biometric data and why is its protection important?

— Who is responsible for issuing Indian passports?

— India has signed an operational Visa Exemption Agreement with which countries?

— Know about visa issues that India is having with other countries

Key Takeaways:

— These reports were obtained by Lighthouse Reports, a non-profit investigative newsroom based in Utrecht, The Netherlands, through more than 40 Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the EU Commission, the UK and individual EU member states.

— These were collaboratively investigated by media partners across 11 countries, including The Indian Express in India, Der Spiegel in Germany and Le Monde in France. FOI is a legal framework similar to Right To Information (RTI) Act in India.

— The Indian Express scrutinised all inspection reports, tracked the financial footprint of VFS Global, and interviewed nearly 150 applicants at its visa centres in Delhi and Mumbai. Records reveal that EU member states, in their inspections that included a field visit to India, flagged a range of concerns:

• how applicants’ personal and biometric data is stored on unencrypted discs, its transport and handling;
• widespread “visa shopping”, mainly by travel agents, in which Schengen visas were obtained from an EU nation, which typically offers faster approval, to reach another member state;
• unclear communication, even “lapses,” in informing applicants that value-added services (VAS), such as premium lounge access, are optional and have no link to visa approval.

— VFS Global has rejected the allegations and said that its operations are “subject to rigorous and continuous government oversight”.

The key findings of the investigation:

• Fake VFS appointments were found to be sold by travel agents, alongside fake employment contract letters used to support national work visa applications.
• At the Swiss mission in New Delhi, passports that were sent back in 2020 were still found with VFS.
• Fee reimbursements to applicants incorrectly charged by VFS were found to be mishandled — so much so that Swiss auditors wrote: “This does not work at all.”
• A 2024 Schengen evaluation of VFS Global’s India operations, with Germany and Poland, noted that the company’s services were not compliant with EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) which govern security of data including tax and financial details.

Do You Know:

— A Schengen visa is a type of entry permit that allows the holder to visit any of the countries that are part of the Schengen area for a short period of time. It permits the holder to travel freely in the designated area for up to 90 days within 180 days, although they do not grant the right to work.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Now, Indian citizens eligible for multi-entry Schengen visa for longer validity

EXPLAINED

VB-G Ram G rules: What changes as scheme set to replace NREGS

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

What’s the ongoing story: The Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, is set to come into force from July 1, replacing the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is the difference between VB-G RAM G and NREGS?

— What do you understand about guaranteed work employment?

— What are the provisions in the article related to the right to work?

— What is the funding mechanism of VB-G RAM G?

— How does the new Centre-State funding pattern for the scheme impact cooperative federalism?

— What are the challenges associated with the scheme?

— What is the reason for introducing a pause in work during the peak agricultural sowing and harvesting seasons?

— What is Direct Benefit Transfer? What are its advantages and challenges?

— What are the major recommendations of the Sixteenth Finance Commission?

Key Takeaways:

— The VB-G RAM G Act increases the number of guaranteed wage employment days, shifts a significant portion of the funding burden onto states, and turns the resource allocation process into a top-down process.

— The rules create a new provision (not mentioned directly in the Act) allowing those with verified MGNREGS job cards to avail work under the new scheme. They call for using the Sixteenth Finance Commission’s formula to determine the normative allocation by the Centre to states.

— And another new provision also allows the Union government to keep aside a portion of the normative allocation for states based on certain parameters.

— The VB-G RAM G Act, which Parliament enacted in December last year, will replace the MGNREGA scheme that provided employment to over five crore rural families in the last financial year (2025-26).

— It increases the number of working days from 100 to 125 and provides for a 60-day pause in the scheme during the peak agricultural sowing and harvesting seasons to ensure the availability of farm labour.

— Unlike MGNREGS, where the Centre paid 100% of the wage bill, VB-G RAM G shifts 40% of the funding burden onto states.

— It also flips the MGNREGS model of Central allocations based on state labour budgets, with the Centre now determining the devolutions.

— Among the new rules, the Transitional Provisions are the most significant for existing MGNREGS workers. Their MGNREGS job cards, once renewed and verified through e-KYC, will remain valid for seeking employment under the VB-G RAM G Act. This arrangement will continue until state governments issue Gramin Rozgar Guarantee Cards under the new law.

— The rules also specify that all wage and unemployment allowance payments will be made through Direct Benefit Transfer into bank or post office accounts. The Union government, however, is yet to declare the wage rate under the VB-G RAM G scheme.

— Crucially, the draft rules have a provision regarding keeping aside a portion of the normative allocation, which will be distributed among states based on certain parameters…

— Another significant rule, as already set out in the Act, says that states will have to bear any additional expenditure over the normative allocation. This means that if a state sees higher demand and its expenditure exceeds its normative allocation, then it will have to bear that additional expenditure.

Do You Know:

— Launched across India’s 200 most backward rural districts in 2006-07, the MGNREGS was extended to an additional 130 districts during 2007-08; and to the entire country from financial year 2008-09.

— The Finance Commission is a constitutionally mandated body that decides, among other things, the sharing of taxes between the Centre and the states.

— Article 280 (1) requires the President to constitute, “within two years from the commencement of this Constitution and thereafter at the expiration of every fifth year or at such earlier time as the President considers necessary”, an FC “which shall consist of a Chairman and four other members”.

— Direct benefit transfer is a process of transferring government subsidies to the accounts of beneficiaries directly.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍5 key changes VB G Ram G Bill introduces in the rural job guarantee framework 

📍16th Finance Commission Report

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(2) Among the following who are eligible to benefit from the “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act”? (UPSC CSE 2011)

(a) Adult members of only the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe households.

(b) Adult members of below poverty line (BPL) households.

(c) Adult members of households of all backward communities.

(d) Adult members of any household.

(3) Consider the following: (UPSC CSE 2023)

1. Demographic performance

2. Forest and ecology

3. Governance reforms

4. Stable government

5. Tax and fiscal efforts

For the horizontal tax devolution, the Fifteenth Finance Commission used how many of the above as criteria other than population area and income distance?

(a) Only two

(b) Only three

(c) Only four

(d) All five

THE IDEAS PAGE

Dowry has many complicities, requires wide ranging response

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance

Mains Examination: General Studies-I: Salient features of Indian Society, Diversity of India

What’s the ongoing story: Lakshmi Puri writes: During my years at UN Women, we promoted recognition of the concept of femicide — the killing of women and girls because they are female — reflected in Latin America’s Belém do Pará Convention and the Inter-American Model Law on femicide/feminicide. If any crime in India can truly be characterised as femicide, it is dowry death.

Key Points to Ponder:

— What are the reasons for the prevalence of dowry in India?

— What are the historical and socio-economic roots of the dowry system in India?

— What is the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961, and what are its key provisions?

— What challenges exist in implementing the Dowry Prohibition Act?

— What is stree dhan?

— What is the role of police, judiciary, and family support systems in preventing dowry-related violence?

— Why do conviction rates remain low in dowry death cases?

— How do patriarchy and gender stereotypes perpetuate practices such as dowry?

— What measures need to be taken to address this?

Key Takeaways:

— Every dowry-linked tragedy tears through the national conscience before being swallowed by the next news cycle. Incidents that are now under investigation should not become occasions for sensationalism or breast-beating.

— They must instead become a mirror held up to a civilisational contradiction: How can India — Bharat — which reveres women as the Tridevis, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Parvati, barter away their dignity and insult Nari Shakti? How can an India aspiring to Viksit Bharat by 2047 allow daughters to be weighed against cars, cash, gold and flats?

— Dowry is not a custom, gift or “family prestige” dressed in wedding silk or glitter. It is the marketplace where marriage loses its soul.

— The concept of stree dhan does not justify the custom of dowry.

— Dowry is not merely an old social evil. It is a continuum of violence. It begins with demand, grows into entitlement, hardens into coercion, and often morphs into harassment, assault, abetment to suicide and murder.

— India recorded 5,737 dowry deaths in 2024 — nearly 16 women every day. Convictions remain about 35 per cent where trials were completed.

— Dowry is also a direct assault on Sustainable Development Goal 5, which commits the world to gender equality, ending discrimination, eliminating violence against women, and eradicating harmful practices.

— Dowry is also an affront to the dignity of a man. A man who demands or accepts dowry places a market price on himself. He diminishes his own purusharth and purushatv — his capability, character and manhood. It is masculinity on crutches, seeking validation through extortion.

— The girl’s parents carry an equally grave responsibility. The first is not to give dowry at all. Where dowry is demanded after marriage, their instinct must shift from “save the marriage at any cost” to “save the daughter at any cost”.

— India has a legal framework. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961, penalises giving and taking dowry. Section 80 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita deals with dowry deaths, while Section 85 addresses cruelty and harassment.

— Yet, law without implementation is a locked door without a key. Nor should a high acquittal rate be read as proof of false cases; acquittals often arise from delayed investigations, hostile witnesses, social pressure, stigma or out-of-court settlements.

— The way forward must rest on the Four Ps framework.

• Prevention means empowering brides, creating zero tolerance and strengthening deterrence through strict enforcement.
• Protection means safe reporting systems, helplines and responsive policing.
• Prosecution means speedy accountability for husbands, in-laws and enablers.
• Provision of crisis response services means shelters, counselling, legal aid, financial support and mental-health care.

Do You Know:

— In 1974, the Committee on the Status of Women in India (CSWI) and the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee found that dowry had spread to all castes, communities, religions, and regions.

— Alongside its expansion, luxurious items and cash increasingly became part of the dowry. In many communities, it also became linked to the perceived ‘market value’ of the groom, determined by his occupation and social status.

— According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), India recorded over 34,000 dowry deaths between 2018–2022, apart from thousands of harassment cases each year.

— Dowry negotiations happen within social networks built on trust and subtle hints. As such, not every demand is documented in written form. Therefore, there is a lack of evidence that can be produced in a court, and most cases are dismissed by the police. Families also hesitate to report dowry cases. Most are not even aware of their legal rights.

— The cultural normalisation of gifts also helps in facilitating dowry. Some brides’ families see dowry as a means of displaying their wealth and social status, while demands from grooms’ sides are often based on their occupation and social status.

— Normative belief of men being superior to women is often seen as contributing to the practice. This is particularly true when the women lack financial independence. Such patriarchal values are part of the Indian kinship system as illustrated by scholars like Leela Dube (See Women and Kinship: Comparative Perspectives on Gender in South and South-East Asia, 1997).

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍UPSC Issue at a Glance | Dowry Prohibition and Associated Challenges

📍To eradicate dowry, why changes have to be social and generational, not just legal

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

We are witnessing increasing instances of sexual violence against women in the country. Despite existing legal provisions against it, the number of such incidences is on the rise. Suggest some innovative measures to tackle this menace. (UPSC CSE 2014)

On India-US, symptoms are being managed, not underlying MAGA unpredictability

Syllabus:

Preliminary Examination: Current events of national and international importance.

Mains Examination: General Studies-II: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests

What’s the ongoing story: Shashi Tharoor writes: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Donald Trump at the White House in February 2025, the air was thick with the celebratory rhetoric of a geopolitical romance destined to define the 21st century. 

Key Points to Ponder:

— What is the status of the India-US relationship?

— What are the major milestones of the India-US relationship?

— What are the challenges in the India-US relationship?

— What is friend-shoring?

— What is CAATSA?

— What is de-hyphenation?

Key Takeaways:

— For 25 years — a golden quarter-century bookended by Bill Clinton’s transformative visit to New Delhi in 2000 and that February encounter — the India-US relationship operated on a seemingly unassailable, ascendant trajectory.

— This historic warming rested on several foundational assumptions throughout the first quarter of the century.

— Over the past year, the Trump administration has systematically trashed these long-held assumptions, leaving Indian policymakers deeply shaken and confused about the basic premises of their foreign policy.

— Rather than treating India as an indispensable strategic counterweight in the Indo-Pacific, Washington’s transactional “America First” doctrine has treated New Delhi as an economic adversary and a geopolitical afterthought.

— The most visceral shock has been economic, shattering the illusion of seamless trade convergence. Trump’s aggressive re-litigation of trade balances resulted in the sudden imposition of sweeping universal tariffs.

— For an Indian economy banking on “friend-shoring” (the intentional redirection of global supply chains away from China), this blunt protectionism has been a rude awakening, proving that Washington is less interested in building resilient economic partnerships than in closing its borders to most imports, friendly or otherwise.

— Simultaneously, the assumption of strategic compatibility crumbled under the weight of Washington’s transactional approach to global conflicts.

— As India maintained its pragmatic oil imports from Russia and sustained its historical defence ties with Moscow, the White House aggressively brandished the threat of CAATSA sanctions, erasing the diplomatic space New Delhi previously enjoyed to navigate its complex Eurasian dependencies and replacing it with a rigid demand for compliance.

— It was against this backdrop of structural fraying and mounting mistrust that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived. Widely viewed as a much-needed damage-control exercise, Rubio’s visit sought to inject a dose of traditional geopolitics back into a relationship on the verge of transactional derailment.

— By utilising his time in New Delhi to reaffirm American commitment to the Quad, fast-track pending defence transfers like the co-production of jet engines, and frame India’s security as an absolute requirement for American dominance in the Indian Ocean, Rubio offered India a comforting echo of the pre-2025 consensus.

— However, a single successful diplomatic visit cannot completely undo a year of systemic whiplash. While Rubio effectively managed the acute symptoms of the crumbling partnership, the underlying disease — the radical unpredictability of Washington’s transactional MAGA foreign policy — remains uncured.

— Washington must codify its much-vaunted “strategic partner” status for India, ensuring that if New Delhi is expected to take risks to support US interests in Asia, it cannot be simultaneously penalised with the same tariff bluntness applied to economic adversaries.

— The past year has delivered a sobering, necessary lesson to New Delhi: The strategic partnership with the US is not a self-sustaining enterprise, but a fragile construct susceptible to shifting executive whims, requiring constant protection from the vagaries of transactional politics. As they say in Washington, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Do You Know:

— C Raja Mohan writes: Looking beyond Rubio’s visit, three considerations stand out.

— First, Delhi must honestly assess whether it fully utilised the opportunities opened by America’s strategic rethinking of Asia over the last two decades. Persistent political hesitation, ideological confusion, and bureaucratic caution prevented India from fully leveraging the geopolitical openings that the US created since the turn of the century.

— Second, we are dealing with a very different US than the one that went out of its way to befriend India 25 years ago. India must come to terms with the structural shifts underway in American foreign policy under Trump, especially regarding the Eurasian balance of power.

— Third, whatever direction US policy takes, Delhi has no option but to adapt. Its response must be two-fold: Continue working with the US, bilaterally and through the Quad, to sustain a favourable balance of power in Asia; and, equally, accelerate India’s own economic transformation, unleash the productive energies of Indian society, and strengthen internal unity.

Other Important Articles Covering the same topic:

📍Beyond Trending: What is rules-based international order?

📍C Raja Mohan on Marco Rubio in India: Why Delhi obsesses over Washington

Previous year UPSC Prelims Question Covering similar theme:

(4) Consider the following statements: (UPSC CSE 2023)

Statements-I: Recently, the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU) have launched the ‘Trade and Technology Council’.

Statement-II: The USA and the EU claim that through this they are trying to bring technological progress and physical productivity under their control.

Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements? [UPSC Civil Services Exam – 2023 Prelims]

(a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is the correct explanation for Statement-I

(b) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is not the correct explanation for Statement-I

(c) Statement-I is correct but Statement-II is incorrect

(d) Statement-I is incorrect but Statement-II is correct

Previous year UPSC Mains Question Covering similar theme:

📍‘What introduces friction into the ties between India and the United States is that Washington is still unable to find for India a position in its global strategy, which would satisfy India’s National self-esteem and ambitions’. Explain with suitable examples. (UPSC CSE 2019)

📍Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) is transforming itself into a trade bloc from a military alliance, in present time – Discuss. (UPSC CSE 2022)

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