Election Commission of India (ECI): SIR and Electoral Integrity

GS-II – Governance, Polity and Social Justice | Electoral Reforms | Constitutional Bodies

Why in News?

• ECI’s Functioning Under the Lens: The Indian Express discovered that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised objections on record at least 14 times between October 2025 and August 2026 about decisions taken during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), several of these, it was claimed, were taken without their knowledge.
• Changes in Form 6: Vivek Joshi said that Form 6, the application for new electors cannot be changed unless these rules are amended by the government, which was done in May. In July though, questions were included about whether applicants or their parents or grandparents had been on the electoral roll of last SIR. Sandhu called it “unauthorised and illegal”.
• Centralization of Electoral Database: Election Commissioners raised red flags on the centralisation of electoral rolls database, demanded audit and noted that field officials did not have full access to ERONet portal.
• The saga of deletions in West Bengal: Around 60 lakh electors flagged for “logical discrepancies” by software, 27 lakh names purged.
• Appeals Pending: Among the 38 lakh appeals pending with tribunals, a staggering 16.1 lakh were among those who wanted voters included by judicial officers removed. It is still not known who permitted these appeals to be made on behalf of the ECI — that was Sandhu’s question.
• Restoration of Electors: More than nine out of ten deletion appeals hitherto decided have led to restoration of electors.
• Delhi Electoral Rolls: An analysis by The Hindu analysis found that 24 of the 70 seats in Delhi have less electors than those who voted a year-and-a-half ago, according to the draft rolls.
• Supreme Court Comment: Justice Dipankar Datta ruled that substituting the Chief Justice of India with a Union Minister on the panel for selection under section 6 of the 2023 Act fails “perception test”. And CEC was chosen as Gyanesh Kumar by the said panel.

Possible Problematic Aspects of SIR and ECI

• Anomalies in the decision-making: Election Commissioners objected at times that decisions were taken without their knowledge.
• Centralisation of Electoral Rolls: Changes at the central level allegedly overrode EROs, who are the authorities responsible for determining eligibility.
• Unaccountability: For transparency purposes, there was no clear-cut approach over centralisation of electoral roll database and eligibility work, leading to data integrity concerns.
• Dubious Logical Discrepancies: Lakhs of electors flagged by software as alleged discrepancies.
• Burden on Citizens: The design for the SIR places the burden on electors to prove their eligibility rather than on the state.
• Genuine Voters Excluded: The return of over 90 per cent electors in decided deletion appeals indicates that lakhs of genuine voters may have been disenfranchised before the West Bengal polls.

Constitutional and Legal Concerns

• Universal Adult Franchise: The deletion of electors before verification destroys the constitutional guarantee of universal adult franchise.
• Appointment of the CEC: Justice Dipankar Datta noted that appointing a Union Minister in place of the CJI on the selection panel had “perception test”.
• The article argued that the Supreme Court had earlier upheld SIR with insufficient confrontation of its design.

Way Forward

• Audit of Electoral Roll Database: Audit of centralised electoral roll database.
• And next, they need to stop deleting anything — at least until the database is vetted.
• Accountability: Who authored appeals on behalf of the ECI against voters added by judicial officers, clarify?
• Safeguards Against Removing Legitimate Electors: Ejecting voters should only occur after clear evidence to do so.
• Increase Electoral Transparency: Work to resolve issues around centralisation of decisions and granting field offices access to ERONet.

Conclusion

• Electoral Integrity: The SIR controversy raises issues of transparency in the functioning of ECI.
• Democratic Rights: The electoral revision process has to safeguard genuine voters and preserve constitutional provisions for universal adult franchise.
• Institutional Responsibility: The article condemns CEC Gyanesh Kumar and demands accountability for deleting voters before a database of the electoral roll is audited.

UPSC Mains Practice Question

Q.The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has raised concerns regarding electoral integrity, institutional accountability and the constitutional guarantee of universal adult franchise. Examine the issues involved.