The Special Intensive Exercise- an Explainer

“Democracy is never a thing done. It is always something that a nation must be doing”- Archibald MacLeish. This is a quote that reflects the true spirit of the Indian political system as well as the Constitution. Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of a healthy democracy. To ensure the same, the constitution makers inserted Article 324, which vests superintendence, direction and control of elections to the Election Commission of India, thus conferring on it the status of a Constitutional body. 

Article 326 established the principle of Universal Adult Suffrage which ensures that every citizen who is 18 or above can exercise his right to vote. A document called an Electoral Roll contains the names of all eligible and registered voters within a specific constituency. According to the ECI, there are more than 969 million registered voters as of 2024. The Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 confers the power of preparing Electoral Rolls to the Election Commission of India. 

In line with its powers to create and update the Electoral Roll, the ECI conducted a Special Intensive Revision. It is a time-bound, house-to-house voter verification process, aimed at updating and correcting the electoral rolls before a major election. It allows for new registrations, deletions and modifications to the roll. The first phase involves field verifications wherein the Booth Level Officers, who are usually government employees such as schoolteachers or revenue officials, go door-to-door in their assigned areas and verify whether a voter is still alive and present there. The BLO’s ask voters to furnish certain listed documents. The BLO’s also carry with them various forms which are filled based on a voter’s specifical circumstance- Form VI for additions, Form VII for deletions and Form VIII for corrections. The next Phase involves public campaigns and awareness initiatives by the ECI through newspapers, radio, television and social media. The Third Phase involves publication of a Draft electoral roll, followed by a 30-day period for filing claims and objections by any concerned citizen. The Fourth and final phase involves the publication of the final electoral roll which becomes the official list for the next upcoming election. 

The SIR gained significant public and political attention when it was introduced in Bihar in June 2025. The exercise resulted in the deletion of over 60 lakh voters from the voter list. The next SIR was announced for West Bengal in October of the same year, which led to around 90 lakh deletions from the list. The SIR required voters, who were not part of the last intensive revision of 2002-2003 to furnish documentary proof linking them to persons present in those legacy rolls. The ECI prescribed a list of 11 acceptable documents, which excluded the Aadhar and ration cards. This marked the first of many,criticisms levelled against the SIR process and the ECI. The proximity of the process to the looming elections and the rushed way in which it was conducted marked another point of contention. Critics have also cited the mobile nature of work of migrant workers, students and seasonal labourers, thus making it hard for them to prove residence and be present at the time of the revision. Availability of required documents in rural areas, villages and remote hinterlands remains a pressing challenge, leading to concerns of systemic exclusion and marginalization. 

A group of NGO’s, political activists, politicians and Members of Parliament filed a petition in the Supreme Court in July 2025, questioning ECI’s authority, the documentation requirements and the timing of the exercise. They stated in their petition that the ECI created a “suspended citizenship” regime, by shifting the burden onto the existing voters to prove citizenship. During the hearings, the Supreme Court expanded the list of documents to include the Aadhar card. 

The proponents of the exercise cited the principle of “one person, one vote, one value” to garner support for ECI. They contend that by removing duplicate and ghost voters, the ECI is helping maintain public trust in the democratic system and safeguarding the electoral process. 

In May 2026, Supreme Court upheld the legitimacy of the SIR and held it to be in consonance with the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950, affirming the Constitutional obligation of ECI to conduct free and fair elections. At the same time, the SC has also categorically stated that the SIR cannot be used for administrative or welfare purposes and that deletion of names from the electoral roll does not automatically mean loss of Indian citizenship. SC has also allayed concerns by clarifying that ECI is not equipped to determine citizenship, which can only be done by the competent authority under the Citizenship Act, 1955. 

The ECI has all along defended the exercise as a constitutionally mandated and electorally required verification process. It has cited concerns of several illegal immigrants, from Bangladesh who had obtained voter identity cards in West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. 

At the time of writing this Blog, the ECI had announced three phases of the SIR, covering the entire country, barring the state of Himachal Pradesh and the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.