Election Commissioners Raise Objections Over SIR

The Election Commission of India is facing renewed scrutiny over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. An investigation by The Indian Express, written by senior editor Ritika Chopra, reported that more than 13 crore names were removed from draft electoral rolls across 30 States and Union Territories. The report also found that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months on issues including voter registration, deletions, appeals, electoral-roll data access and election software.

According to the report, the two Commissioners objected to changes made to Form 6 for new voters, describing them as “unauthorised” and “illegal”, and raised concerns about the increasing centralisation of access to electoral-roll databases. The Election Commission has said that such internal observations and differing views are part of its functioning and maintained that key decisions were taken unanimously. The developments have intensified public scrutiny of the SIR process and the functioning of the poll panel.