Election Commission: Orders roll revision in 17 states, UTs

The Election Commission of India has directed a Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral rolls in 17 states and Union Territories, including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur, with 1 January 2027 as the qualifying date for enrolment. The schedule provides for draft rolls on 12 November and final publication on 4 January 2027, according to ETV Bharat’s account of the Commission’s directions.^[1]

The exercise will update existing voter lists and seek applications from eligible people who remain unenrolled, including young and first-time voters. The Commission also directed officials to receive advance applications relating to the subsequent qualifying dates of 1 April, 1 July and 1 October 2027, ETV Bharat reported.^[1]

The directions cover Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. ANI’s report, published by ThePrint, identifies the same jurisdictions and says the exercise is being undertaken under Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, concerning preparation and revision of electoral rolls.^[2]

Draft rolls, objections and final publication

The reported timetable separates preparatory work, publication of the draft voter lists, submission of claims and objections, and decisions on those submissions. ANI reported the following schedule:^[2]

Claims concern applications for enrolment, while objections can challenge a proposed inclusion or seek deletion of an existing entry. Corrections and changes of residence are handled through separate application provisions. According to ETV Bharat, the Commission directed Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), who handle registration for their constituencies, to invite these submissions when publishing the draft rolls.^[1]

The Commission also instructed EROs to decide claims and objections already received during continuous updating before publishing the draft. This places pending applications alongside preparation of the new draft rather than leaving them outside the revision process, according to the directions reported by ETV Bharat.^[1]

What the qualifying dates mean

A qualifying date is the reference point for determining whether an applicant meets the voting-age requirement. The Commission’s electoral-roll FAQs state that registration requires Indian citizenship, an age of at least 18 years with reference to a qualifying date, and ordinary residence in the area concerned.^[3]

The January revision does not mean that all advance applicants qualifying later in 2027 will be registered in January. The FAQs explain that advance applications are processed in the relevant subsequent quarter when the applicant attains the qualifying age. Annual summary revision uses 1 January of the year in which the roll is finally published as its qualifying date.^[3]

For this exercise, the Commission has asked officials to seek applications both from eligible citizens not yet enrolled and from prospective electors qualifying on the specified dates in 2027, ETV Bharat reported. The distinction allows applications to be received ahead of eligibility without treating advance submission as immediate registration.^[1][3]

The Commission’s FAQs distinguish the principal forms: Form 6 concerns enrolment, Form 6A applies to eligible overseas Indian electors, Form 7 concerns objections to inclusion, and Form 8 covers corrections or a change of residence. These are different processes rather than interchangeable requests to alter a voter list.^[3]

Aadhaar, duplicate entries and photographs

The Commission said applicants may voluntarily furnish Aadhaar details in Forms 6 and 8. An application for inclusion must not be denied, and an existing entry must not be deleted, because an individual is unable to furnish or intimate an Aadhaar number, according to ETV Bharat’s account.^[1]

This is consistent with the Commission’s published FAQs, which describe the Aadhaar field as voluntary and state that non-submission is not a ground for rejecting a registration application.^[3]

For reports of repeated or multiple entries, the directions require field verification by the Booth Level Officer (BLO), the local official involved in checking voter details. ETV Bharat reported that verification must take place in every such case reported by individual citizens, political parties’ booth-level agents or residents’ welfare association representatives.^[1]

The Commission also instructed BLOs to check voter photographs and replace blurred, poor-quality, non-standard or incorrect images with suitable photographs. Separately, officials were told to use statistical analysis to identify underrepresented groups and target enrolment efforts accordingly.^[1]

Those efforts are to include women, transgender persons, Scheduled Tribes, including Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, senior citizens, persons with disabilities and other hard-to-reach electors. The directions call for administrative assistance without unnecessary inconvenience or hardship, ETV Bharat reported.^[1]

Staffing controls during revision

The Commission placed responsibility on each constituency’s ERO to ensure that eligible citizens are included and ineligible people are not added or retained, according to ANI’s report in ThePrint.^[2]

State and Union Territory chief secretaries were directed to provide sufficient staff and resources to election officials. Posts designated as District Election Officer, Electoral Registration Officer or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer must not remain vacant during the SSR period.^[2]

Officials connected with the revision cannot be transferred without the Commission’s prior approval between draft publication and final publication. Where a transfer becomes necessary, the proposal must include full justification and reach the Commission through the state’s Chief Electoral Officer, ANI reported.^[2]

Separate schedules for other jurisdictions

The announced timetable does not cover every state and Union Territory. The Commission said separate SSR schedules would follow for jurisdictions where Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a separately identified roll-revision exercise, was underway or had just concluded. ANI’s report names Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and Delhi among them.^[2]

For Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, where the Commission said SIR had not begun, revision schedules would be announced later with weather conditions taken into account. The reported directions provide no dates for those schedules.^[1]

References

1. etvbharat.com. Election Commission Announces Special Summary Revision In 17 States …
2. ThePrint, carrying ANI reporting. EC directs 17 states, UTs to carry out Special Summary …
3. Election Commission of India. FAQ’s on Electoral Roll.