New Delhi, Oct 30 (UNI) The Election Commission of India(ECI) is navigating a legal and administrative maze over whether to conduct a Special Intensive Revision(SIR) of voter lists in Assam ahead of the state assembly elections scheduled before May 20, 2026, or to hold polls using existing rolls and defer the revision, informed sources said.
This complex decision reflects Assam’s unique challenges surrounding citizenship verification that have profound implications for the state’s electoral integrity.
Unlike other states, Assam’s voter list revision is entangled with ongoing legal battles concerning the status of “D” voters, individuals whose citizenship is under scrutiny by the Foreigners Tribunals. These tribunals deal with a significant backlog of cases and apply stringent, often controversial, documentation requirements that disproportionately affect marginalised communities. The Supreme Court’s active examination of these procedures adds layers of uncertainty to the electoral preparations.
The disenfranchisement of “D” voters, barred from voting until proven citizens, has sparked widespread concern. Genuine citizens often face hurdles in validating their status due to a lack of documentation, fueling allegations of arbitrary exclusion and harassment. Additionally, the ECI’s authority to enforce stringent citizenship verification during voter list revisions is being challenged, with petitioners citing a 1995 Supreme Court ruling that limits the burden of proof to new voter registrations, not existing ones.
Acknowledging this exceptional context, the ECI announced on October 27 that Assam would be excluded from the nationwide SIR 2.0 exercise. Instead, a separate schedule will be devised for Assam’s electoral roll revision, reflecting the state’s unique constitutional and administrative complexities.
As the Assam Assembly elections approach, the Commission faces the daunting task of balancing the constitutional mandate for accurate electoral rolls with safeguarding the voting rights of genuine citizens amid intense legal scrutiny.
Meanwhile, sources also reveal that the Election Commission plans to conduct the SIR simultaneously in the other seven northeastern states: Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura, following the completion of the second phase of the SIR.
