Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls | Highlights from the Courts and Constitution Conference 2026

Last week, over 28 and 29 March 2026, the NALSAR University of Law, with the Law and Other Things (LAOT) blog and the BML Munjal University organised the 7th edition of the Courts and Constitution Conference at NALSAR University. The Conference hosted five panels on federalism and governors powers, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and a memorial panel for late Prof. M.P. Singh, environmental law and policing and state violence. 

The Supreme Court Observer participated in the Conference as its media partner. In this report, we bring you key highlights from the second panel which revisited the ECIs directive to conduct a SIR before the 2025 Bihar elections. 

The panel was moderated by Prof. Aymen Mohammed of NALSAR. Panel members included Prof. Anupama Roy, from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Advocate Nizam Pasha, Senior Advocate Dr. Aditya Sondhi, and Ms. Ayushi Kar, a Data Journalist at Reporters’ Collective. 

The panel discussed the political backdrop of SIR, the limitations surrounding the revision, and the question of legality pending the exercise. 

Electoral roll as an artefact 

What started as a directive by the ECI to conduct a “special” intensive revision before the Legislative Assembly Elections in Bihar crystalised into a burning constitutional question: Does the ECI have powers under Article 324 to conduct a de novo revision of rolls nationwide? 

Roy took to the podium as the first speaker from the panel, stating that the limitless exercise of powers under Article 324 of the Constitution by the ECI has reduced the electoral rolls to an artefact, devoid of the constitutional context which envisioned enfranchisement in certain ways, at the founding moment of the Constitution. Referring to the historical context of revision of electoral rolls, Roy stated that SIR has changed the way in which both franchise and electoral roll was seen in the history of enforcement.

She suggested the common person has found themselves in a citizenship paradox: Is a person a citizen of India merely because they possess certain documents? Can the conferment of the citizenship status depend solely on the acquiring of identity documents? 

The conversation took turn to the ground realities of the SIR in Bihar and West Bengal as observed by Kar, who reminded that the process of revision of electoral rolls as a part of the SIR has taken on different versions depending on the State. 

The ECI has defended the exercise of SIR on the account that the rolls have not been intensively “purified” since 2003. However, on assessment of the situation on ground, The Reporters’ Collective found that 14.35 Lakh entries in the electoral rolls were duplicate. Kar mentioned that the ECI took a number of technical executive decisions, such as abandoning de-duplication software and deploying translation software, which had led to the deletion of a number of voters from the list. 

Precedents and anecdotes 

Pasha described the ECI’s power under Article 324 a “carte blanche”. He remarked that the question of legality of the proceeding is time sensitive and should not be allowed to surpass the question of exercise of such powers. Referring to the argument of the ECI that an intensive revision is justified given that no intensive revision has been conducted in the last two decades, Pasha says that no revision is “intensive” for the individual and hence, the burden of intensive proof should not fall on them. 

Supporting the arguments of Pasha, Sondhi said that the language of the statute makes it amply clear that SIR can be conducted in a constituency for the reasons recorded in writing. To then direct a nationwide revision of rolls, in disregard to the previous electoral rolls, turns the presumption of the sanctity of electoral rolls on its head.

His concluding remarks suggested that the ECI’s ordinary administrative exercise of power has assumed an extraordinary role with the SIR. The panel agreed in unison on one point: ECIs independence from the political regime is perhaps the surest guarantee of one’s right to vote.