Supreme Court Clarifies Scope of Special Intensive Revision
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Why in News
- The Supreme Court recently stated that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process applies only to electoral matters and cannot determine citizenship or cancel welfare benefits.
- This statement came while hearing a petition against the West Bengal government, which allegedly used SIR data to delete beneficiaries from food security and women welfare schemes.
- Referring to its 2025 Bihar SIR case judgment, the court clarified that the Election Commission must send citizenship disputes to the central government under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
Special Intensive Revision
- The Special Intensive Revision is a comprehensive process managed by the Chief Election Commissioner to clean and update official voter lists.
- This process derives its authority from Article 324 of the Indian Constitution and Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
- Its main goal is to remove fake, shifted, duplicate, and deceased voters so that every legitimate citizen gets a fair single vote.
- India conducted this intensive voter list update eight times between 1951 and 2004, with the last exercise completed during 2002-2004.