Former CEC Quraishi Questions ECI's SIR, Says There Was No Need For Such Exercise
Former CEC SY Quraishi, before the announcement of the third and final phase of SIR, stated that there was no need for such an exercise.
Published : March 31, 2026 at 9:01 PM IST
New Delhi: Ahead of the announcement of the third and final phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 22 States and Union Territories (UTs), former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi on Tuesday categorically stated that there was no need for such an exercise.
Speaking at a conclave titled "Challenges to Electoral Integrity: Examining Recent Evidence of Electoral Manipulations', organised by the Bharat Jodo Abhiyan, a civil society platform, the former CEC, while referring to the SIR, said, "There was no need for SIR. Our (ECI's) system had already reached 99 per cent perfection. This has been reached because of 30 years of effort."
"From (former CEC) TN Seshan's tenure, an initiative was taken to digitise the electoral roll. The electoral roll was digitised, up to 99 per cent, and there was accuracy. Only there was one per cent inaccuracy because of dead voters' names not being removed. But, every time the effort was to make it fully accurate," he said.
In third phase, which is expected to start from April, will be carried out by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Ladakh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, NCT of Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana and Uttarakhand, as per the poll panel.
The ECI had earlier asked the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of these states and UTs to complete all the preparatory exercises in this regard. Notably, the first phase of the SIR was conducted in Bihar, before the 2025 Assembly polls. The second phase was carried out by the poll panel in nine states and three UTs, including poll-bound states of West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
The Opposition, including the Congress and Trinamool Congress, have been critical of the SIR and accused the ECI of acting at the behest of the BJP.
The former CEC further said, "Under Article 326, the electoral roll must be perfect. Earlier, there also used to be perfection. If any gap is there, Summary Revision can be done. This Revision is very simple. Under this, the existing electoral roll would be taken door to door, the household would be shown the names of electors to verify, besides giving a form for addition or deletion if necessary."
Referring to the zero appeal during the SIR exercise, he said, "There was no one to take a complaint because the Booth Level Officers were under stress. We would have been happy if genuinely there was zero complaint." "Through Summary Revision exactly we can achieve accuracy of electoral rolls," the former CEC said, adding the immediate implication of the SIR is that we are putting the existing electoral roll into the "dustbin".
The former CEC also questioned why this exercise was carried out in such a short duration. "What was the necessity to conduct within two months?" he questioned.
Referring to 60 lakh names, which were put "under adjudication" in the final electoral roll released after the SIR exercise in West Bengal, Quraishi said, "As the elections are nearer. Even if the existing 20 lakh adijucutaion could not be done, they should be allowed to vote. Because it's not their fault."
Notably, on February 28, approximately 60 lakh names were put "under adjudication" in the final electoral roll released after the SIR exercise in West Bengal. Following this, 705 judicial officers were assigned to decide whether these names should be kept or eliminated from the electoral rolls.
The supplementary list includes the names of voters whose cases have been reviewed by these judicial officers. Individuals whose names are deemed excludable during the judicial adjudication process will have the opportunity to appeal to the 19 Appellate Tribunals established for this purpose across the state.
Assembly elections in West Bengal are scheduled to be held in two phases in the state.
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