In a move that’s set to impact millions of voters across India, the Election Commission (EC) has announced a week-long extension for the submission of enumeration forms in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. This decision, revealed on Sunday, November 30, 2025, comes as the EC tries to address both logistical hurdles and concerns raised by various stakeholders, including the Supreme Court, state governments, and the very officials tasked with carrying out the revision.
The SIR exercise, which began on June 24, 2025, initially targeted Bihar, where Assembly elections are anticipated. The process has since expanded to nine states and three Union Territories (UTs): Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. According to the Deccan Herald, the EC’s extension pushes the deadline for electors to submit their forms from December 4 to December 11, 2025, while the publication of the draft electoral roll is delayed from December 9 to December 16, 2025. The final roll, originally slated for February 7, 2026, will now be released on February 14, 2026.
This extension was not made in a vacuum. On November 26, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant weighed in on petitions challenging the SIR process, particularly in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The bench remarked, “If you make out a case, then we can direct them to extend the date. Can that date be a ground for the court to say that we don’t have any power now? The court can always say.” This statement underscored the judiciary’s willingness to intervene if procedural fairness or constitutional concerns were substantiated by the petitioners.
Petitions before the Supreme Court have called for the postponement of the SIR in Kerala, citing logistical difficulties as the state is set to hold local body polls on December 9 and 11. Others have gone further, challenging the very constitutionality of the SIR exercise. The EC, for its part, has maintained that there is no need to delay the process in Kerala, but the controversy has clearly influenced the broader schedule.
So, what’s at stake in this massive bureaucratic undertaking? The SIR requires all registered electors in the affected states and UTs to complete and submit enumeration forms, which are then uploaded by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to the EC’s ECINet portal. According to the EC’s latest statement, 99.65% of enumeration forms for a staggering 510 million (51 crore) electors have already been distributed, and 84.30% have been digitised. That means at least 429.6 million (42.96 crore) electors have submitted their filled forms—a feat that would make even the most seasoned administrator pause.
But the process hasn’t been without pain. Reports have emerged of extreme work pressure on BLOs, the ground-level officials who are often state government school teachers or anganwadi helpers. Tragically, there have been at least five deaths by suicide among BLOs engaged in the SIR, and in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida, police have filed FIRs against 60 BLOs for alleged dereliction of duty. These developments have cast a shadow over the exercise, raising questions about the support and safeguards in place for those entrusted with the task of safeguarding the voter rolls.
In a letter to the Chief Electoral Officers of the 12 states and UTs involved, the EC clarified that the new schedule supersedes its earlier instructions from October 27, 2025. The enumeration phase now runs until December 11, and all forms submitted by that date will be included in the draft roll. Once the draft is published on December 16, electors have a month—until January 15, 2026—to file claims and objections. Those who cannot link themselves to the last intensive revision roll must submit additional documents between December 16, 2025 and February 7, 2026. This linkage requirement, introduced in the aftermath of the Bihar SIR, aims to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the rolls by verifying the eligibility of new registrants and weeding out ineligible entries.
The background to these changes is instructive. The EC’s order for a Special Intensive Revision was first implemented in Bihar, where the last intensive roll revision had occurred in 2003. All those registered after 2003 were required to provide documents from a list of 11 to prove their date and/or place of birth. The result? A 6% reduction in registered electors in Bihar, attributed by the EC to the removal of dead, shifted, or absent voters. This precedent set the stage for the current nationwide push to update the rolls, with the EC promising that the remaining states and UTs will be brought into the process in due course.
Yet, the scale and speed of the SIR have prompted criticism from multiple quarters. Opposition leaders, political parties, and civil society groups have filed petitions with the Supreme Court, arguing that the process is either logistically unfeasible or constitutionally unsound. Some have pointed to the overlap with other electoral events, such as Kerala’s local body polls, as grounds for delay. Others have warned that the pressure on BLOs is unsustainable, especially given the reports of suicides and criminal charges.
According to the EC, the delays in some states were partly due to the slow pace of matching the current electoral roll with the last intensive revision roll. Under current rules, anyone not linked to the previous revision must be issued a notice and asked to submit documents to establish their eligibility. This step, while crucial for preventing fraud and maintaining an accurate voter list, adds to the administrative burden on both electors and officials.
Despite these challenges, the EC has pressed ahead, emphasizing the importance of the SIR for the health of India’s democracy. “The process of matching the electoral roll to the last intensive revision roll was lagging behind in some states,” the EC noted in its communications, implicitly acknowledging the need for the extension. The Commission has not publicly detailed all the reasons for the change, but the confluence of legal, logistical, and human factors is clear.
For now, electors in the affected states and UTs have a little more breathing room to complete their forms and ensure that their names appear on the rolls. After the draft roll is published on December 16, the month-long window for claims and objections will be crucial for addressing any errors or omissions. And as the final roll is set to be published on February 14, 2026, all eyes will be on the EC to see how it balances the twin imperatives of accuracy and inclusion—while also caring for the officials who make the process possible.
With the SIR extension, the Election Commission has bought itself—and India’s voters—a bit more time. Whether that’s enough to resolve the concerns swirling around the process remains to be seen, but for now, the machinery of democracy keeps grinding forward, one form at a time.
