Can electoral integrity be secured only through intensive revision of voter lists? Other democracies suggest that continuous updating, automatic enrolment and accessible correction mechanisms can protect accuracy while reducing the risk of excluding eligible citizens.

India’s Election Commission has defended Special Intensive Revision (SIR) as necessary to address duplicate registrations, deaths, migration and accumulated discrepancies. Unlike routine summary revisions, SIR involves extensive verification, including house-to-house enumeration and eligibility scrutiny. Its scale, however, raises concerns about administrative capacity, documentation requirements and wrongful exclusion.

These concerns intensified after nearly 65 lakh names were absent from Bihar’s draft electoral roll published in August 2025. The Supreme Court upheld the Commission’s authority to conduct the exercise while emphasising safeguards, including publication of exclusion lists with reasons and acceptance of Aadhaar for identity........

© National Herald