Election Commission asks 22 states, UTs to prepare for next phase of SIR expected in April

After the Bihar exercise concluded, the EC announced SIR in 12 states and union territories – Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Puducherry , Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

• SIR of electoral rolls to start in 22 states and UTs from April
• Exercise will coincide with Census 2027's first phase
• Supreme Court rejects PIL for SIR of rolls in Assam

Did our AI summary help?

With the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in most of the poll-bound states, the exercise is now expected to start in remaining 22 states and UTs from April, the Election Commission told chief electoral officers on Thursday.

The CEOs have been asked to “complete preparatory work” related to SIR “at the earliest”, EC Secretary Pawan Diwan said in his letter.

The exercise in these states will coincide with the first phase of Census 2027, which is the Houselisting and Housing Census that will be undertaken between April and September. EC officials said they were confident that both exercises will not clash.

In a letter to the chief electoral officers of 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, Delhi, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana and Uttarakhand, the poll authority said pan-India SIR of voters' list was ordered in June last year.

The letter recalled that the EC had on June 24 last year ordered that SIR will be undertaken across the country and directed all CEOs, except Bihar where the exercise started in June 2025 itself, to initiate pre-revision activities for the exercise.

After the Bihar exercise concluded, the EC announced SIR in 12 states and union territories – Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Puducherry , Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

In a separate but related news, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a PIL seeking directions to the Election Commission to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Assam.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi took note of the submissions of the poll panel that the final electoral rolls have already been prepared in Assam and the petition has become infructuous.