When the Election Commission of India issued the order of nationwide SIR of electoral rolls in June, Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu wrote a note in the file of the draft order which said, “Care should be taken that genuine voters/citizens, particularly old, sick, PwD (persons with disabilities), poor and other vulnerable groups do not feel harassed and are facilitated,” Sandhu wrote in the file of the draft order.”
The Indian Express has learned that Sandhu’s written note was likely referring to the exercise that asked all registered voters to fill out new forms, and required some groups to submit extra documents to prove they were eligible to vote. In fact, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had later cleared the file.
In a sign of how urgently the decision was pushed through, the draft order was approved on WhatsApp on the same day, reported IE.
Final order with a telling amendment
When the Election Commission released its final order on June 24, it included a major change from the earlier draft. The draft order, reviewed by The Indian Express, had clearly connected SIR to the Citizenship Act. It argued that the Commission must ensure only citizens listed under the Constitution and the Citizenship Act, 1955 are included in voter lists, and noted that a major amendment to the Act in 2004 had never been followed by an intensive revision across the country.
But when the final order was published that evening, all references to the Citizenship Act and the 2003 amendment (which took effect in 2004) were removed.
Instead, Paragraph 8 of the final order simply said that Article 326 of the Constitution requires a voter to be an Indian citizen, and that the Commission therefore has a constitutional duty to include only citizens. The paragraph ends suddenly, with the sentence stopping right after a semicolon. Since June 24, the Commission has made no comment on the incomplete line. On November 28, The Indian Express asked the EC’s spokesperson about the change from the draft to the final order, but received no response. The newspaper also sought a comment from Commissioner Sandhu about his note and whether his concerns were addressed, but he was unavailable.
Sindhu’s reference to “citizens” removed from final SIR version
A reading of the final order, however, shows that the issue Sandhu highlighted did make its way into the document. Paragraph 13 includes the concern he raised, though it does not credit him directly. It states that because this is an intensive revision, voters who do not submit the enumeration form by July 25, 2025 cannot be added to the draft rolls.
At the same time, it instructs election officials, including CEOs, DEOs, EROs and BLOs, to ensure that genuine voters, especially older people, the sick, persons with disabilities, those who are poor, and other vulnerable groups, are not troubled and are given all possible help, including with the support of volunteers.
Notably, Sindhu’s reference to “citizens” had also been removed from the final version.