The Election Commission informed the Madras High Court that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) will prepare a new voter list in Tamil Nadu. Unlike the annual SSR, every existing voter must submit fresh details for verification.
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) informed the Madras High Court on Monday, November 3, 2025, that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) to be carried out in Tamil Nadu this year will result in the creation of a completely new list of eligible voters in the State.
This process will be different from the usual Special Summary Revision (SSR) that happens every year and before every Assembly or Lok Sabha election.
Appearing before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan, ECI standing counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan explained the difference between the two revisions.
He said,
“The SSR retains an existing list and requires only the voters who want inclusion or exclusion from the list to make applications in the prescribed formats.”
He further explained that,
“On the other hand, the SIR requires every voter in the existing list too to submit an enumeration form which could be either downloaded from the ECI website or provided to the voters by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs). The BLOs shall collect one copy of the enumeration form and sign the acknowledgement of the receipt in the second copy to be retained by the voters.”
Under this process, voters are not required to attach any additional documents while submitting the enumeration form. Documents would be needed only if there is any mismatch between the details filled in the form and those already present in the existing voter list.
To ensure accuracy the counsel added,
“The BLOs would also conduct a door-to-door verification and find out the reasons if anyone had failed to submit the enumeration form,”
For first-time voters or those who have migrated from other States to Tamil Nadu, Mr. Rajagopalan clarified that they will have to submit a declaration form along with necessary documents to prove their age and identity.
He stated,
“The BLOs would always carry enough number of enumeration forms and declaration forms for distribution to all those who require them.”
Speaking about the timeline, the ECI counsel said the Special Intensive Revision was announced on October 27, 2025, and training for the officials began the next day.
He informed the court that the training would conclude on November 3, 2025, and the enumeration phase would start from November 4 and continue till December 4, 2025.
He also detailed the following schedule:
“The draft electoral roll would be published on December 9. Thereafter, claims against exclusion and third-party objections against inclusion would be entertained from December 9 this year to January 8 next year. Inquiries on such claims and objections would also begin on December 9 and they would be concluded by January 31, 2026 in order to publish the final voters’ list on February 7.”
Mr. Rajagopalan emphasized that both the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act, 1950, empower the ECI to carry out SSR as well as SIR.
He informed the Bench that
“The SIR had been conducted at least on 10 occasions in the past.”
In Tamil Nadu, he noted that
“The SIR was conducted last for 197 Assembly constituencies in 2002 and for the rest of the 37 constituencies in 2005.”
Explaining the objective behind the move, he stated,
“The aim of the SIR was to ensure no eligible citizen gets left out from the electoral rolls and no ineligible person gets included in the rolls.”
These submissions were made during the hearing of two writ petitions that sought purification of the electoral rolls in Tambaram and T. Nagar Assembly constituencies. Another similar petition related to Karur constituency was not listed for hearing on the same day.
After hearing the submissions made by the ECI counsel, the Division Bench directed the High Court Registry to list all three writ petitions together on November 13, 2025, for further hearing.
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