Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi met at Nirvachan Sadan at 3 pm and issued a detailed clarification addressing the SIR, voter enrolment procedures, its ECINET technology platform and administrative decisions. The commission released a photograph showing all three officials at the meeting.
The poll body said its June 24, 2025 order launching the SIR across states and Union Territories had the unanimous approval of the full commission. It said later schedules covering 12 states and Union Territories on October 27, 2025, and another 19 on May 14, 2026, were also approved unanimously. The commission noted that the Supreme Court upheld the original SIR order in May.
The clarification followed disclosures that Sandhu and Joshi had recorded objections over several matters linked to electoral-roll revision and the commission’s functioning. The issues included changes connected with Form 6 for new voter registration, access to electoral-roll databases, decisions involving the IT division, appeals arising from the West Bengal revision and cases involving excluded voters in Goa.
The commission did not deny that differing views or observations had arisen during internal deliberations. Its statement instead stressed the unanimous approval behind the principal SIR orders and announced procedural measures governing future meetings and technology decisions.
Among them, agendas for commission meetings will be circulated in advance and minutes will be issued. Directions given by election commissioners to officials will have to be complied with. New initiatives involving IT modules and portals will first be discussed by a committee of officers before being submitted to the commission for approval.
The EC also ordered a review of ECINET by a committee headed by a Senior Deputy Election Commissioner and including an independent expert from an IIT or IIIT. The panel will examine whether the system complies with election laws and rules. The commission said field officers already have role-based access corresponding to their statutory powers and promised further operational flexibility where required.
Addressing another disputed issue, the commission said a letter sent to the Cabinet Secretary concerned the functioning of an officer on deputation to the EC and was unrelated to policy or the IT division. It said contested work-redistribution orders were not implemented after directions from two commissioners, while oversight of the IT division by a Deputy Election Commissioner was never withdrawn.
The meeting also produced changes affecting voters who receive SIR notices because they are unmapped or have what the commission calls logical discrepancies. Booth Level Officers will visit their homes, collect documents and upload them to ECINET for decisions by Electoral Registration Officers, removing the need for routine appearances at ERO or Assistant ERO offices.
Hearings will be held only in exceptional circumstances and should preferably take place online, the commission said. An elector may authorise an adult family member to attend where a hearing is required. District Election Officers were also instructed to establish help desks or special camps for people in night shelters, labourers, poorer residents and homeless people where necessary.
On Form 6, the commission said the declaration attached during SIR had been upheld by the Supreme Court. Outside an SIR period, it said forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, would apply.
The EC extended Delhi’s deadline for claims and objections to October 30 and the deadline for disposing of notices, claims and objections to November 30. Maharashtra’s corresponding deadlines were extended to October 12 and November 10.
The commission said SIR had been completed in 20 states and Union Territories, including Bihar and West Bengal, and that people omitted from the rolls, including young and first-time voters, could seek enrolment through continuous updation.
