Instructions from Election Commission to 22 states and union territories for preparation of SIR

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday (February 19) directed the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of 22 states and union territories to immediately begin preparations for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists. The Commission has said that all the necessary preparatory work should be completed as soon as possible so that the process can be started from April 2026.

The states and union territories to which the instructions have been issued include Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, among others. According to the Commission, the SIR exercise has been completed in Bihar. Apart from this, it is in the final stage in nine other states and three union territories. Now the revision work will be started in the remaining 17 states and five union territories.

In its letter, the Commission has instructed the concerned CEO that all preparations related to the revision should be completed in a time bound manner.

The upcoming SIR process will be coordinated with the first phase of Census 2027. In the first phase, house-listing work is proposed between April to September. The Election Commission wants to streamline the process by synchronizing voter list revision and census.

The commission, in a letter sent to several states and union territories, including Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Telangana and Uttarakhand, reminded that the nationwide SIR was ordered in June 2025. At that time all the states except Bihar were instructed to start pre-revision activities.

After completion of the exercise in Bihar, the Commission had announced SIR in 12 more states/UTs including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The Election Commission says that this nationwide voter list revision campaign is being conducted with the aim of ensuring transparent, updated and error-free voter list, so that an accurate and reliable electoral base can be prepared for the upcoming elections.

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