Election Commission plans SIR phase-III, weighs census & exam timelines

New Delhi: Gearing up to launch phase-3 of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the rest of the country, the Election Commission of India last week held a high-level meeting with the Registrar General of India (RGI) & Census Commissioner to ascertain possible dates for the SIR, given the upcoming Census exercise, ET has learnt.

Possible windows for SIR phase-3 may either be between February and April or during June-August this year, it is gathered.

A model to kickstart it next month itself is also under examination.


The ECI has to keep two important considerations in mind as it looks to wrap the SIR across states. One, the Census exercise and the second, the upcoming exam season. Both these impact the conduct of SIR. The reason is that the all-important Booth Level Officer (BLO), crucial to the SIR enumeration exercise, is usually a government teacher and heavily deployed in both the above exercises.

Census 2027 becomes crucial as the pan-India exercise will be conducted in two phases with the first -- house listing -- planned during April-September 2026 over 30 days in each state and the second -- population enumeration -- scheduled for February 2027. In case of school exams, scheduled between February and March, teachers will again have their hands full and not be available for SIR which has become quite an intensive exercise for BLOs.

SIR phase-II has seen numerous cases of complaints from BLOs on deadline pressures and heavy workload as they have to map every elector against the previous intensive revision electoral roll. Therefore, the poll panel has to ensure that there is no overlap of dates. That apart, the ongoing SIR phase-2 has also thrown up fresh challenges that can make scheduling more difficult.

Phase-2 also continues to be caught in litigation and political opposition with state governments moving court against the EC over various facets of the SIR exercise, ongoing proceedings which often lead to schedule changes. Only last week, the apex court raised questions over the number of electors 'deleted' over citizenship concerns besides asking EC to extend deadlines to allow electors more time.

The poll panel's surprise launch of SIR in Bihar in June 2025 ahead of the assembly elections, sparked a major national debate. It followed it up with SIR phase-2 in 12 states and UTs, including in poll-bound West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry among others -- an exercise that will be completed with the publication of the final electoral rolls lined up between February and March.