Election Commission Eases SIR Procedure, Extends Claims Window Amid Mounting Political Row
SIR Row Intensifies: Election Commission Announces Relief Measures as Protests Mount, Calls Grow for CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s Resignation
NEW DELHI/SHIMLA : The Election Commission on Saturday announced a series of procedural changes to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, including doorstep collection of documents, online hearings, special help desks for vulnerable sections and extended deadlines for claims and objections, as protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar intensified across the country.
The decisions were taken at a meeting of the full Commission at 3 pm on Saturday and were issued through its official media release.
The Commission's intervention comes after nationwide protests led by the Congress and other groups over SIR, voter deletions and reports of disagreements within the three-member poll panel.
Protests were held in Delhi, Karnataka, Goa, Jharkhand and other places, with demonstrators demanding Kumar's resignation.
The controversy intensified after an Indian Express investigation reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded formal objections at least 14 times over the previous 10 months concerning voter registration, deletion and restoration, access to electoral-roll databases and other aspects of the SIR process.
The report said some of the objections questioned decisions allegedly taken without the knowledge of the two Commissioners.
Against this backdrop, the Commission's latest press statement seeks to address several operational concerns surrounding voters who have received notices during SIR.
BLOs to visit voters instead of forcing office hearings
The Commission said voters who have received notices because their names are “unmapped” or have “logical discrepancies” will no longer ordinarily have to appear before the ERO or AERO.
Booth Level Officers will visit their homes, collect the necessary documents and upload them on ECINet for consideration by the Electoral Registration Officer.
Hearings will be held only in exceptional circumstances, as decided by the ERO, and will preferably be conducted online.
An adult member of the family may also be authorised by the elector to attend the hearing on their behalf. The Commission said facilities for online hearings would be strengthened.
The move comes days after the Supreme Court asked the ECI to examine whether additional safeguards were required before notices were issued for “logical discrepancies” in Delhi's SIR.
Special camps for poor, homeless and vulnerable voters
District Election Officers have been directed to establish adequate help desks and hold special camps for people living in night shelters, labourers, poor people, homeless persons and other sections requiring assistance.
The decision is significant because the ability to produce old electoral records and supporting documents has emerged as one of the central concerns surrounding the revision exercise.
ECINET faces independent review
In another significant decision, the Commission announced that a committee headed by a Senior Deputy Election Commissioner and including an independent expert from an IIT/IIIT will review ECINET.
The committee will examine whether the system complies with the relevant Acts and Rules and submit its report to the Commission.
The ECI said several upgrades had already been made to the portal based on inputs from State Chief Electoral Officers and that any further flexibility required by field officers would be made operational.
The Commission also decided that future initiatives involving IT modules and portals would first be discussed by the Committee of Officers before being placed before the Commission for approval.
Delhi gets more time; Maharashtra deadline extended
The Commission has extended the deadline for filing claims and objections in Delhi to October 30, 2026, while the disposal of notices, claims and objections has been extended to November 30.
In Maharashtra, the claims-and-objections deadline has been extended to October 12, with disposal extended to November 10.
The Commission also directed CEOs, DEOs and EROs to launch a special drive for enrolment of people whose names were left out during SIR, including young and first-time voters.
It said SIR has already been completed in 20 States and Union Territories, including Bihar and West Bengal, while the final number of electors would be known only after final publication in the remaining 12 States of Phase III.
EC says SIR was unanimously approved
In a direct response to the controversy over internal differences, the Commission reiterated that the SIR order issued on June 24, 2025, covering all States and Union Territories and beginning with Bihar, was approved unanimously.
It further said the Supreme Court upheld the SIR order on May 27, 2026, and that subsequent schedules for different groups of States and Union Territories were also approved unanimously by the Commission.
The press statement also stated that the letter sent to the Cabinet Secretary was not related to any policy decision of the Commission or its IT division, but concerned the working of an officer on deputation to the ECI.
The Commission said the work redistribution orders issued by that officer were not implemented after the intervention of the two Commissioners and that oversight of the IT division by the Deputy Election Commissioner was never withdrawn.
Commission orders tighter internal procedures
The full Commission has also decided that agendas for all Commission meetings will be circulated in advance and minutes will be issued.
Annual Performance Appraisal Reports of officers are to be completed by December 31 every year, foreign trips by officers will require Commission approval, and directions issued by Commissioners to Commission officials are to be complied with.
The decisions come at a politically sensitive moment for the poll panel. Reports of internal objections over SIR and electoral-roll technology have provided fresh ammunition to opposition parties, which have stepped up protests and publicly demanded Kumar's resignation.
The ECI, meanwhile, has sought to emphasise collective decision-making and has said the SIR decisions were unanimously approved by the Commission.
The controversy has also generated competing claims about the scale of voter deletions.
Reports based on ECI data have put the number of names removed from draft electoral rolls during the SIR exercise at 13.37 crore, while the Commission's latest statement makes clear that the final figure will only emerge after completion of the remaining phase.
The latest clarification by ECI therefore does not announce a final nationwide deletion figure.
Instead, it focuses on the process for restoring or enrolling voters, particularly those facing notices, while strengthening scrutiny of the ECINET system.
On CEC row, Congress MP and Renowned Writer Dr Shashi Tharoor says, "As far as I'm concerned, this is an incredibly grave assault on the functioning of Indian democracy. We're looking at a situation where, unfortunately, a large number of Indian citizens have been deprived of their democratic right to vote, which is a right guaranteed by the Constitution of India and by democracy.
It has been done apparently on the basis of a number of irregularities, including an illegal modification of Form 6, requiring data that has not been required in the past.
They have actually gone ahead and made a number of changes without the consent of two of the three election commissioners, which itself is a violation of the procedures of the election commission.
"On top of that, we have a situation where, shockingly, we are seeing software that has been imposed over the heads of the electoral officers... It is a fundamentally untenable, catastrophic assault on our democracy..."
"There is no question anymore that our country is facing a very severe challenge... The Congress party has called the Working Committee meeting on the 29th September... Our democracy is larger than any individual, any party. It's for everyone to defend, Dr Tharoor added while talking to news agencies today.
For the Election Commission, the immediate challenge is now twofold: completing the legally prescribed revision of electoral rolls while addressing growing public and political scrutiny over how names are being excluded, restored and added.
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