Question on SIR: Has the process of correcting the voter list now become a test of citizenship? - The Lens
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A total of 53 people have been awarded Bharat Ratna in the last 70 years in India and the country's well-known scientist Chintamani Nagesh Ramachandra Rao i.e. CNR Rao is one of them.
We are discussing him because earlier this week, 92-year-old Rao has been served a notice under Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Karnataka regarding self-name mismatch.
Due to this, once again questions have been raised regarding the ongoing SIR process in the country. Let us tell you that around 13 crore names have been removed from the voter list across the country.
Why is this happening that the Special Intensive Revision i.e. SIR has created the fear of a large number of people being deprived of their voting rights and has also started a debate on the legal meaning of citizenship. This is also because the voter list is amended every year.
There are Booth Level Officers i.e. BLOs, they are agents of political parties. There is a complete process for adding, deleting and correcting names. If this entire system was working for so many years, then what happened suddenly that almost one-third of the voters of Delhi were left out of the draft voter list or in Maharashtra, more than two crore names were left out of the draft list at one go.
The question is not just how many names are being removed. The question being raised is whether SIR is just a process to correct the voter list or is it a process to decide who will have the right to participate in the elections.
If a citizen's name is accidentally left out of the final voter list, what legal and administrative remedies will he have? Is there enough transparency and accountability in this entire process?
To answer these questions, in BBC Hindi's special program 'The Lens', Mukesh Sharma, Director of Journalism of Collective Newsroom, spoke to Anjali Bhardwaj, who raised questions on the SIR process, and former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa. Anjali works on issues of transparency and accountability and is the co-convenor of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information.
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'Crores of people are being paraded through SIR'
The first question in this context is regarding the process of SIR. Is the problem in the amendment of voter list or electoral roll, or is there a problem with the SIR process of the existing Election Commission?
In response to this question, Anjali says that there is a provision for special intensive revision in the Constitution but it should be done only in a particular constituency or a particular part of it. Now the Election Commission suddenly decided that we will conduct SIR in the entire country.
She says, "When any work is being done involving 100 crore people, it was necessary to talk to the people and political parties first. But the Election Commission did not do this. The earlier Election Commissions themselves have been doing this. There are so many former Election Commissioners in our country, who understand this entire process. The Election Commission should have talked to them also."
Former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa also questions the appropriateness of SIR on such a large scale and the deletion of names of such a large number of people.
He says that the process of removing names from the voter list when someone shifts, or someone's name appears in two places, or someone dies is a normal thing and is done every year. Identity parade of crores of people is being conducted through special intensive revision.
Lavasa says, "The number of voters in the 2024 elections was around 98 crores. The figures that have come out so far are that around 14 crore people have been expelled or will be expelled. On one hand the population is increasing and on the other hand the number of our voters is decreasing."
"The EP ratio (voter-population ratio) in India which used to be 98-99% till date will reduce by about 8-10%. After all, where will those people go whose names will be removed from it. So is the census flawed? All these are very deep questions."
'Election Commission has not even taken the decision on SIR'
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Those who are criticizing this process say that it seems as if people are being pressurized to prove their citizenship. But if a person is not a citizen of India then why should his name be in the voter list?
In response to this question, Ashok Lavasa says that the name of any person who is not a citizen of India should not be included in the voter list of India. But the process of removing such people who have been included in the voter list for some reason is already given in the law.
He says, "Any person can protest, petition that so and so person is not a citizen of India and this is evidence to doubt his citizenship. After that a notice is given and after enquiry, the ERO (Electoral Registration Officer) can remove his name and send it to the Foreigners Tribunal."
"Two things have been said in the Supreme Court order of May 27, 2026. One is that from the constitutional point of view, the Election Commission has the power to carry out such a thorough amendment and second, the Election Commission should refer all such cases to the Foreigners' Tribunal within four weeks, against whom there is doubt on the basis of citizenship."
Lavasa further says, "It has been almost two to three months since that order was issued, but till now it is not known how many people's names have been referred to that tribunal. This means that there is no publicly available data about whether the campaign to expel non-citizens or the objective set by the Election Commission has been accomplished or not or to what extent it has been accomplished."
Anjali Bhardwaj raises questions on the purpose of SIR and the intentions of the Election Commission. She says that when questions were asked on the need for this process, the Election Commission verbally said that there is a problem of some infiltrators and the names of wrong people have been included in the list. But in the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, it was said that we decided to get this SIR done on the basis of an independent assessment.
She says, "When we asked for a copy of that independent assessment under RTI, the Election Commission said that we do not have any such information in physical form. Then in the RTI application we asked to show us the copies of those files in which the decision to conduct SIR has been made, then the Election Commission said that such files are not with us. The Principal Secretary of the Election Commission said in writing that the Election Commission has not taken any decision to conduct SIR."
'If 60% wrong voters elected the government, then whose responsibility is it?'
Questions are being raised regarding deletion of names of about 60 lakh people in Delhi. Can there be such a large number of fake voting? Can this figure be so big?
Anjali Bhardwaj says that today's figures of the Election Commission are saying that about 58 lakh names have already been put in the list to be deleted, notices have been issued to 33 lakh more people. That means out of 1 crore 56 lakh people, the names of about 60% people are wrong and should be deleted.
She asks, "It is from this list that the Election Commission has conducted elections in Delhi in February 2025... If there were so many wrong voters, then whose responsibility is it? What was the Election Commission doing till now? Who in the Election Commission is taking action against for allowing such a huge fraud to happen in the country?"
She gives the example of the Bengal elections, "By creating a logical discrepancy category in the Bengal elections, the Election Commission removed the names of lakhs of people. The appeals of about 27 lakh people reached the tribunals. Before they could do their work, the elections were held and these people were not able to vote."
"Now that the tribunals are conducting hearings, it appears that more than 90% of the people were wrongly struck off. They are being put back on the voter list. In many constituencies the number of voters' names struck off is more than the margin of victory."
Ashok Lavasa describes the logical inconsistencies category as illogical.
He says, "If you are currently 60 years of age and for some reason in the 2002 or 2003 elections it was mistakenly written as 24 instead of 42, what difference does it make? Your franchise cannot be taken away because of a clerical mistake."
"Also look at the process of mapping. If I am in the electoral roll in 2025-26, and for some reason my name is not in the 2002 list, it could also be that I was not actually registered at that time, it happened after that, then will my constitutional right to vote be taken away? This is not a logical, justifiable thing."
'This is the process of NRC, not SIR'
Is the credibility of the Election Commission a question mark at this time? If yes then how can it be fixed?
Ashok Lavasa says, "There is a question mark because if you look at the newspapers, look at the media, somewhere or the other there are news and editorials about how many problems people are facing due to SIR. This in itself raises questions on the credibility of the Election Commission and because of this, questions also arise that what is the Election Commission's stand regarding this? Or what process is the Election Commission adopting to remove these problems?"
"All these things are not coming out. I said earlier also, the Election Commission should come forward, put forward its stand whether it is satisfied with the removal of such a large number of people or what will be seen by the Election Commission which has made the criteria of the voter list so that it can be believed that our voter list is inclusive, accurate and complete. What is the stand of the Election Commission in this, it should be put forward."
Anjali Bhardwaj says, "First of all, the Election Commission should work transparently. What data has the Election Commission given to the people as to how many infiltrators they have found? The Election Commission has not yet given any data. The work is being done in a completely non-transparent manner."
"Second, there cannot be arbitrariness. You are conducting SIR all over the country but suddenly in Bengal you say that those whose names are not matching with the old list because there is a mistake in the spelling of the name, we will send them notices and will not allow them to vote in the name of logical discrepancy. This should not be arbitrary."
She says, "The process adopted this time is that even if your name is in the latest voter list, if you cannot show your name in the voter list of 2002 or 2003 and cannot prove your parents or your relationship, then your name will be struck off."
"This is the process of NRC that the Election Commission is adopting. This is no longer the process of SIR. The method that the Election Commission has adopted, the way in which it has been done, the panic with which it has been done and the results that are coming out of it today, are raising very serious questions. The Election Commission should understand that this will cause great long-term damage to the electoral democracy of the country."
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