Former CEC SY Quraishi slams SIR: ‘Why scrap 99 pc accurate voter roll?’

Former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi has criticised the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, calling it unnecessary, disproportionate and procedurally flawed, and warned that it could undo decades of work in building accurate voter lists.

In an exclusive interview with The Federal, Quraishi questioned the veracity of SIR and claimed that now they have the onus of being accurate. With the SIR exercise triggering allegations of voter disenfranchisement and administrative overreach, Quraishi explained why he believes the process is unnecessary, risky, and procedurally flawed.

Decades-old system in waste paper bin

The former CEC said the SIR was unwarranted as India’s electoral rolls had already reached a high level of accuracy through the summary revision process followed consistently for over two decades.

“I think the SIR was totally unnecessary because the summary revision that we have been doing for the last 20–25 years has been doing a good job. We had already achieved about 99 per cent accuracy in the electoral rolls.”

Also Read: National hearing raises alarm over SIR as testimonies cite mass deletions, bias

He said digitisation had enabled continuous updates to voter lists, but deciding to start afresh was inexplicable.

“Instead of building on that, they have thrown the existing rolls into the waste paper basket and are going door to door to locate voters afresh. Something that took us 30 years to achieve, they think they can do in 30 days. It is a grave mistake.”

Cleaning rolls counterproductive

Responding to the government’s claim that the exercise was meant to clean up voter lists, the former CEC warned that the opposite could happen.

“Instead of cleaning the rolls, you will end up with a very unclean roll.” He said the very concept of “intensive revision” was misleading.

“You revise something that already exists. Here, the existing document has been thrown away, and data is being collected ab initio. It is a very tall order, and they have put their hand into a hornet’s nest. The consequences are visible. The entire nation is unsettled,” he said.

Disproportionate, questionable

Citing Bihar as an example, he questioned the scale of the exercise compared to the stated objective of identifying foreigners.

“Around 500 foreigners were detected, of whom about 150 were Bangladeshis and 350 were Nepali Hindu women… and for this, nearly eight crore Biharis were made to run around. Now think of this nationally. There are roughly 100 crore voters in the country.” He described the approach as “totally disproportionate and very questionable”.

Also Read: SIR drive: 97 lakh voters deleted from Tamil Nadu rolls

The former CEC said the current system bears little resemblance to the one followed successfully for years. “The system being followed now is not what we followed for the last 20 years,” he said. He explained that the summary revision process efficiently identified new voters and removed ASD voters—absent, shifted and dead—every year.

“That system of updating worked extremely well. Suddenly, you say that the system goes into the waste paper basket and you will start afresh. Fine, good luck to you,” he criticised.

Accountability must be fixed

He warned that errors in such a massive exercise could have serious consequences. “If this does not result in a clean roll, and if many atrocities come to light, including people being wrongly declared dead, someone has to be held accountable,” he added.

Wisdom, not integrity, questioned

When asked about the integrity of the Election Commission, Quraishi defended the institution itself, but raised concerns about decision-making.

Also Read: EC’s SIR drive ahead of 2026 TN polls triggers confusion, exclusion fears

“I would not question the integrity of the Election Commission, but I would definitely question the wisdom of the Election Commission,” he said.

No comment on political intent

Asked whether the exercise could be aimed at helping a particular ideology, the former CEC declined to speculate. “I can’t comment on that. I have no idea what the intention is. I am only talking about the procedure and the process.”

(The content above has been transcribed using a fine-tuned AI model. To ensure accuracy, quality, and editorial integrity, we employ a Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) process. While AI assists in creating the initial draft, our experienced editorial team carefully reviews, edits, and refines the content before publication. At The Federal, we combine the efficiency of AI with the expertise of human editors to deliver reliable and insightful journalism.)