India

EC Orders Special Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls in Six Regions, Draft to Roll Out Nov. 30

By Himanshi Dahiya

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered a Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls in Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Mizoram, Odisha and Sikkim. The SSR will use the existing roll as its starting point, carrying forward most names to the draft roll. In a letter dated November 4 to the chief electoral officers of the six regions, the poll body set January 1 2027 as the qualifying date – the cut‑off by which a person must have turned 18 to be eligible for enrolment in the revision. Polling stations are to be rationalised by November 20 and the integrated draft rolls published on November 30. Claims and objections can be filed until December 30, and the final rolls will be published on January 21 2027.

The SSR follows the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) that is still under scrutiny. Under the SSR, officials start with the existing roll, publish a draft and invite claims and objections. Booth‑level officers verify new applications, and electoral registration officers (EROs) decide on them before the final roll is published. In the SIR, electors are largely asked to fill enumeration forms and the roll is rebuilt from those forms, with voters having to establish their eligibility.

The November 4 letter also mandated that EROs personally verify cases where deletions exceed 2 % of a polling station’s electors, or where the same person is the objector in more than five cases. The number of Form 7 applications that one person can file has been capped at 10 during the claims and objections period, and five per month during continuous updation.

For nearly two decades, summary revisions were carried out annually. The ECI broke from that pattern when it ordered the SIR on June 24 last year. The SSR schedules for states where the SIR is underway or has just ended – including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi and Telangana – will be announced later. For Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, where the SIR has not begun, the schedule will be notified taking weather conditions into account.

EROs have been instructed to ensure that no eligible citizen is left out and no ineligible person is included. They must seek applications from unenrolled adults, those turning 18 by January 1 2027, and advance applications for those turning 18 on April 1, July 1 and October 1 2027. The poll body has asked for help desks for migrants and special camps for the homeless and marginalised groups, and for targeted outreach to women, transgender persons, Scheduled Tribes, senior citizens and persons with disabilities.

Political parties will receive weekly printed lists of claims and objections, along with free copies of the draft and final rolls. Their booth‑level agents can submit up to 10 forms a day to booth‑level officers. If an agent files more than 30 forms during the claims period, the ERO or assistant ERO must verify them.