ECI’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls

Context:

Ahead of the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections, the Election Commission (EC) launched a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls. This decision sparked legal and political concerns, especially as voters now need to re-verify their citizenship — even if they are already on the rolls.

What makes this drive controversial or different?

This 2024–25 revision is unlike earlier revisions in two key ways:

Burden of Proof on Existing Voters:For the first time, voters who were already on the rolls after 2003 now have to prove their Indian citizenship again with official documents.This reverses the usual presumption that an enrolled voter is already verified.
No Automatic Sanctity of Existing Rolls:Earlier roll revisions respected the sanctity of the existing rolls (i.e., voters already included were presumed eligible).Now, EC's new approach questions past inclusions, especially for those added after 2003 in Bihar.
Marginalised groups like minorities, Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), and migrant populations are at higher risk of exclusion due to:
- Lack of legacy documents
- Low literacy and awareness
- Bureaucratic barriers in remote areas

Why is EC doing this? (ECI’s Explanation)

The EC says rapid urbanisation and migration have created:
- Duplicate entries (voters registered in multiple places)
- Ghost voters (deceased or moved away)
Cited past complaints by political parties (e.g., Congress and BJP) of electoral fraud or inaccuracies.
Hence, a nationwide clean-up is needed to ensure accurate and legitimate electoral rolls.

Supreme Court’s Viewpoint

The Court allowed the revision to continue but raised important concerns:
- Could this exercise disenfranchise legitimate voters close to the election?
- Should it be delinked from the electoral timeline to avoid politicisation?
- Suggested inclusion of widely available documents like Aadhaar and Voter ID for verification.