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**.