By Joseph Maliakan
New Delhi, Nov 3, 2025: The haste with which the Election Commission of India (ECI) on October 27 announced Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters lists in 12 states and union territories has aroused serious suspicion about the real intention behind the move.
Is the commission on the pretext of revision of the voters list attempting to make a National Register of Citizens or is it trying to remove the marginalized sections of the population from the electoral roll – the minorities, the Dalits and the backward classes who are known for opposing the National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The ECI announced a nationwide SIR through a circular issued on June 24. The first phase of SIR, the circular said, would be held in Bihar ahead of the assembly election to be held in November.
Soon, a number of writ petitions were filed in the Supreme Court by individuals and political parties challenging the SIR as being unconstitutional because it violated the provisions of the Representation of the People Act.1950.
The Bihar SIR, the petitioners argued, is illegal because it ignored the electoral roll revisions undertaken by the ECI up to January and went back to the 2003 electoral roll as the basis for revision. In the SIR, the commission asked all those voters who were not listed in the 2003 electoral roll to apply fresh with one or more of 11 documents the ECI identified as proof of citizenship.
The ECI excluded its own voter ID and the government’s Aadhar card as proof of citizenship for inclusion in the voters list. On the intervention of the Supreme Court the Commission reluctantly agreed to accept the Aadhar card for inclusion in the voters list.
The Representation of People Act, 1950, says that inclusion in the voters list will be done on a self-declaration of citizenship backed by one of six documents listed in Form 6 of the 1950 rules – birth certificate, matriculation certificate, passport, Aadhar card, Pan card and driving license.
The 11 documents the commission now demands to prove one’s citizenship ironically exclude Aadhar card, Pan card and driving license. The commission has arbitrarily changed the rules of the Representation of People Act 1950 that only the Parliament is empowered to do. Do the election commissioners think that they are above the law?
Further, the Supreme Court in its 1995 judgement in Lal Babu Hussein case has held that once a person had been registered in the voters list the voter’s name cannot be removed except by holding an enquiry into the citizenship of the voter and after giving an opportunity to be heard.
Therefore, the SIR is being carried out in clear violation of the Supreme Court order for it ignores the commission’s own revisions since 2003. In other words, the commission not only looks at voters with suspicion but questions the authenticity of its own work!
The ECI’s October 27 announcement has come even as the Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging the commission’s actions. The SIR’s second phase covers West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, where elections are scheduled in 2026 and Uttar Pradesh which will vote in 2027.
The electoral rolls in Andaman and Nicobar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry and Rajasthan will also be revised in this phase. Since citizenship rules in Assam differ from the rest of the country, the northeastern Indian state will revise the voters list later.
In the second phase the enumeration will take place from November 4 to December 4. Voters removed from the rolls can appeal up to January 8, 2026. The final revised rolls will be published by February 7, 2026.
The SIR, on a close look, is not just revision of the voters list. Through demanding fresh documents to prove one’s citizenship the ECI has usurped the powers of the federal Ministry of Home Affairs. By changing rules for inclusion of people in the electoral roll the commission has also encroached on the powers of Parliament which alone has legislative powers.
The country prepared its first electoral roll during 1947-1950 when India did not have citizenship laws. It was made on the basis of trust in the people of the country. The first voters list was based on natural membership or default belonging not proven citizenship because the majority of Indians then or even now do not possess any proof of citizenship.
But today, the ECI approaches people with suspicion. The onus of proving citizenship has been transferred to the individual, most of who do not possess the documents commission has demanded. Ordinary citizens in the country only have a ration card or Aadhar card, but the commission has refused to accept them as proof of citizenship.
The burden of proof of citizenship is on the individual not on the powerful state or its agencies. The mandate of the commission is to conduct free and fair elections not to determine anyone’s citizenship. It is a blatant violation of the Indian Constitution by the ECI. The umpire has become the gatekeeper.