Relevance: Polity – ECI & Electoral Roll Management | Source: The Hindu, ECI

News: The Election Commission has extended the deadline for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in several States:

•  including Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, to allow more time for completing voter enumeration and publishing draft rolls.

The Recent SIR Process

12 States/UTs where the Election Commission launched the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process:

Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Goa, Puducherry (Union Territory), Lakshadweep (Union Territory), Rajasthan, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Union Territory)

Draft electoral rolls will be published between Dec 19–31 depending on the State.

What is SIR? 

Special Intensive Revision is a strengthened verification exercise undertaken by ECI to ensure:

• Clean and updated voter lists
  
• Addition of new voters and deletion of ineligible voters
  
• Correction of errors and digitisation of entries
  

Need of SIR?

• To reduce complaints of missing or duplicate voters
  
• To manage migration-heavy states
  
• To ensure accuracy before major elections

Key Issue: Conducting SIR demands heavy administrative coordination, especially in large States, leading to deadline extensions.

Q. With reference to the revision of electoral rolls in India, consider the following statements:

1. Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is undertaken only before General Elections to the Lok Sabha.
   
2. The Election Commission can extend SIR deadlines based on requests from State electoral authorities.
   
3. The legal basis for preparing electoral rolls is provided under the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
   

Select the correct answer:
A. 1 and 2 only
B. 2 and 3 only
C. 1 and 3 only
D. 1, 2 and 3