[REVISION HISTORY]

India voter list revision faces legal and procedural hurdles

Updated 19 times since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

What changed

2026-10-27 12:09 UTC → 2026-10-27 16:23 UTC · added ~~removed~~

India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists continues to face procedural delays and legal challenges. In West Bengal, the Calcutta High Court observed that at the current pace of document verification, the process could take over 20 years. In Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court recently declined to grant an interim stay on name removals, citing that the Supreme Court is already considering related challenges. However, a division bench in Goa flagged a ‘complete Catch-22 situation’ for voters, noting that those omitted from draft rolls face system rejections when attempting to update details. Controversy has intensified regarding the scale of deletions. Nationally, approximately 13.37 crore names were removed from draft lists. In Maharashtra, petitioner Arun Anandagiri alleges that approximately 33 percent of voters—reaching 40.6 percent in areas like Pune and parts of Mumbai—have been removed due to logical discrepancies. Senior Advocate Arvind Datar argued that approximately 3,500 redevelopment projects in Mumbai and Pune have displaced residents, causing address mismatches. In response, the Election Commission of India (ECI) filed a counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court defending the SIR process. The ECI maintains that all SIR orders issued between 2025 and 2026 were unanimous decisions approved by the Chief Election Commissioner and the two Election Commissioners. The Commission rejected allegations of unilateral decision-making ~~and~~ by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, stating that internal notes or queries from commissioners do not constitute formal dissent. The ECI clarified that while a separate declaration was introduced to map applicants to previous records, it is distinct from Form 6. ~~The ECI noted that~~ To reduce confusion, the online application process was updated on October 21 21, 2026, to separate these ~~documents to reduce confusion.~~ documents. The Supreme Court has issued notices to the ECI and relevant governments, with further hearings scheduled for November 5 and November 17, 2026.

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