What Is SIR in Election? Special Intensive Revision of Voter Lists Explained — Process, Phases, Documents and What Changed in UP

If you live in Uttar Pradesh, you have already been through an SIR: a BLO probably came to your house in late 2025 with a pre-filled form, and the state's voter list was rebuilt from those forms. The exercise has since been rolled out across most of India. This guide explains what SIR is, why the Election Commission does it, how it works step by step, and what it means for you before the 2027 elections.

What does SIR mean in an election?

An electoral roll — the voter list — has to be kept accurate: people die, move house, turn 18 or get registered twice. India updates the roll every year through a light-touch Special Summary Revision (SSR), where voters themselves apply to add, delete or correct entries. An intensive revision is the opposite approach: instead of patching the old list, the Election Commission has officials visit every household and prepare the list again from scratch, verifying each person.

The word special means it is ordered for a particular time or area rather than as part of the normal yearly cycle. Before 2025, most states last had an intensive revision around 2002–2004.

Why does the Election Commission conduct SIR?

• Remove dead voters whose names were never deleted.
• Remove shifted voters who moved permanently and may be registered at two places.
• Remove duplicate entries — the same person listed twice.
• Add eligible people who were missing, including young first-time voters.
• Check eligibility — that each person is an Indian citizen, 18 or older and ordinarily resident at the address.

The legal basis

SIR is carried out under Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which lets the Election Commission order a special revision of the roll for any constituency at any time, read with Article 324 of the Constitution, which gives the Commission control over the preparation of electoral rolls. On 27 May 2026, the Supreme Court (Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi) dismissed the challenges to Bihar's SIR and held that it was traceable to these provisions. The Court also said that while the Commission can make a limited inquiry into citizenship for enrolment, formal decisions on citizenship belong to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act.

How SIR works: step by step

1. Enumeration forms: Every elector on the existing roll gets a pre-filled enumeration form with their details.
2. House-to-house visits: BLOs visit each house — up to three times if needed — to hand out and collect the forms. Political parties' Booth Level Agents (BLAs) can assist.
3. Verification and mapping: Each returned form is checked and, where possible, linked to the person's (or their parents') entry in the last intensive revision.
4. Draft roll: A draft list is published. Anyone whose form was not returned — because they died, moved, could not be found or were duplicates — is left out.
5. Claims and objections: For about a month, people can apply to get their name included (Form 6), object to a wrong entry (Form 7) or correct details (Form 8). Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) issue notices and hear cases.
6. Final roll: The cleaned-up final electoral roll is published and becomes the list used in the next election.

SIR vs SSR: what's the difference?

In a year in which SIR has been conducted, no SSR is held. That is why the Election Commission has ordered an SSR from 2 November 2026 in 17 states and UTs, including Uttar Pradesh, with 1 January 2027 as the qualifying date — draft roll on 12 November, claims until 11 December and final roll on 4 January 2027.

SIR in India: the three phases

Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh were left out of Phase 3; the Commission said their schedule would be announced later. Phase 3 also had staggered dates — Punjab's final roll came in October 2026, and Tripura's is due in December 2026.

What SIR changed in Uttar Pradesh

The net reduction of about 2.05 crore names — roughly 13% — makes it one of the largest voter-list clean-ups in the country. The gender ratio on the final roll is 834 women per 1,000 men, and 17,63,360 voters are aged 18–19. If you voted in 2022 or 2024 but did not return your enumeration form, your name may no longer be on the list — check it here.

Documents accepted during SIR

When a voter cannot be linked to the earlier roll, the ERO can ask for proof. The Election Commission's list includes:

• Identity card or pension order issued to a central or state government or PSU employee or pensioner
• Any identity card or document issued by a government, bank, post office, LIC or PSU before 1 July 1987
• Birth certificate
• Passport
• Matriculation or other educational certificate from a recognised board or university
• Permanent residence certificate
• Forest rights certificate
• OBC, SC or ST caste certificate
• National Register of Citizens entry (where it exists)
• Family register prepared by the state or local authority
• Land or house allotment certificate issued by the government
• Aadhaar — accepted as a twelfth document for identity after the Supreme Court's September 2025 direction, though it is not proof of citizenship

Criticism and the Supreme Court

Opposition parties and civil-society groups argued that SIR put the burden of proof on voters and could exclude poor, migrant and rural citizens who lacked documents. During the Bihar hearings, the Supreme Court pushed the Commission to accept Aadhaar, EPIC and ration cards. In its May 2026 verdict, the Court upheld the exercise but required that people whose citizenship the Commission doubts be referred to the competent authority, and that wrongly deleted residents can challenge their deletion.

What SIR means for you before 2027

• Check your name on the final roll at voters.eci.gov.in or electoralsearch.eci.gov.in.
• If it is missing, apply with Form 6 during the ongoing revision (claims until 11 December 2026) — see our Form 6 guide.
• If details are wrong, use Form 8.
• Read our simple guides: SIR election kya hai and SIR ka full form.