"Concerns Grow Over Scale of Voter Deletions in Roll Revision"
Special Intensive Revision (SIR)
an electoral roll exercise requiring every voter to submit a fresh enumeration form, treating non-response as absence.
Electoral Registration Officer (ERO)
the constituency-level authority legally empowered to add or remove names from the electoral roll.
The right to vote in India is not a Fundamental Right under Part III of the Constitution. The Supreme Court clarified this as early as N.P. Ponnuswami (1952), holding that voting is a statutory right created by the Representation of the People Act, 1950. The constitutional basis for adult suffrage is Article 326, which fixes the voting age at 18 years following the 61st Constitutional Amendment. Article 325 bars exclusion from electoral rolls on grounds of religion, race, caste, or sex. Because voting is a statutory right, a citizen wrongly struck off the rolls cannot invoke the special remedies reserved for Fundamental Rights violations. The available remedies are a statutory appeal within the Election Commission's own hierarchy, or a writ petition under Article 226 before a High Court.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) draws its authority from Article 324, which vests superintendence, direction, and control of elections in the Commission. The Constituent Assembly deliberately placed the election machinery outside direct executive control so that the party in power could not manipulate elections. Courts have gradually built constitutional protection around voting through Article 19(1)(a). The right to know a candidate's background was recognised in the ADR case (2002), the freedom to make an informed choice in PUCL (2003), and the right to reject all candidates through NOTA in 2013. In Anoop Baranwal (2023), the Supreme Court reformed the appointment process for the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners to reduce unilateral executive control.
Electoral rolls are prepared and updated under the Representation of the People Act, 1950. At the constituency level, an Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) is the legally empowered authority who decides whether a person is added to or removed from the roll. Citizens apply for enrolment or correction using prescribed forms. The ECI's internal hierarchy runs from Booth Level Officers at the ground level, through EROs, up to Chief Electoral Officers at the state level. There is no independent judicial layer at the first stage of roll-correction complaints. This means the body that conducts the revision also adjudicates initial complaints about that revision.
The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) represents a significant departure from earlier practice. The last comparable exercise, conducted in 2002, began from the existing frozen roll and presumed it correct unless proven otherwise. The SIR instead requires every voter to file a fresh enumeration form. …
Right to vote and to be elected in India is a
Consider the following statements:
1.Union Territories are not represented in the Rajya Sabha.
2.It is within the purview of the Chief Election Commissioner to adjudicate the election disputes.
3.According to the Constitution of India, the Parliament consists of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha only.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Which one of the following best describes the constitutional status of the right to vote in India?
Consider the following pairs of constitutional articles and their provisions relating to elections:
1.Article 324 — Superintendence, direction and control of elections vested in the Election Commission
2.Article 325 — No person to be ineligible for inclusion in electoral rolls on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex
3.Article 326 — Adult suffrage as the basis of elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies
How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?
Which of the following statements about India's electoral roll revision practices is/are correct?
1.The 2002 roll revision presumed the existing electoral roll to be correct unless proved otherwise.
2.The current Special Intensive Revision requires every voter to file a fresh enumeration form regardless of the 2002 roll's status.
Select the correct answer using the code below.
The adjudication of election disputes in India is primarily entrusted to which of the following?
With reference to the Election Commission of India, consider the following statements:
1.It is a multi-member body consisting of the Chief Election Commissioner and such other Election Commissioners as the President may fix from time to time.
2.Its power of superintendence, direction and control over elections derives from Article 324 of the Constitution.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
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