- By Soumyaroop Mukherjee
- Sun, 21 Sep 2025 07:31 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
SIR 2025: The Election Commission of India has asked the state polling bodies to be ready with the voter lists by September 30, indicating that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) could take place as early as October or November. The Election Commission has asked the state chief electoral officers (CEOs) to prepare for the rollout of the SIR in the next 10 to 15 days. September 30 has been set as the deadline to begin the SIR exercise, news agency PTI reported.
The EC has asked the state polling agencies to prepare their voter lists, based on the last SIR. The last SIR in states will serve as the cut-off date, just as the 2003 voter list of Bihar is being used by the EC for the electoral roll revision in the state.
Most of the states had their last SIRs between 2002 and 2004. Many states have completed the mapping of the current electors based on the previous SIRs and posted the list of the eligible voters on their websites. The Delhi CEO website has the voter list from 2008, when the last intensive revision took place. The Uttarakhand CEO has uploaded the voters' list based on the last SIR held in 2006.
Why Is EC Hurrying SIR?
The role of the Special Intensive Revision is to weed out any foreign or illegal voters from the electoral roll to ensure that only rightful citizens exercise the power of voting.
Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal are set to hold Assembly elections in 2026. The Election Commission is trying to get the SIR done as soon as possible so that an updated voter list is put out before the elections take place.
The issue becomes even more important in the wake of recent infiltration activities near the Bangladesh and Myanmar borders.