ECI informs Madras High Court that Tamil Nadu's Special Intensive Revision (announced Oct 27, 2025) will generate a new electoral roll, requiring all existing voters to submit enumeration forms for verification, unlike annual summary revisions.
Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will distribute forms starting soon; first-time voters and migrants need declaration forms with ID proofs; claims/objections from Dec 9, 2025, to Jan 31, 2026, final list by Feb 7, 2026.
Hearing stems from ex-AIADMK MLA B. Sathyanarayanan's plea alleging 13,000 wrongful deletions in T. Nagar; DMK opposes SIR as 'NRC-like', while AIADMK/BJP support it; ECI to follow SC Bihar guidelines.
Tamil Nadu's electoral landscape ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) informed the Madras High Court on Monday that the state's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls will effectively create a "fresh list of eligible voters," mandating re-enumeration for every individual on the existing rolls. This nationwide exercise, rolled out in 12 states including poll-bound Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Bihar, aims to purge inaccuracies amid allegations of bogus entries and deletions—issues that have sparked a political firestorm in the Dravidian heartland.
The ECI's submission came during a hearing on a petition filed by former AIADMK MLA B. Sathyanarayanan, who alleged large-scale irregularities in Chennai's Thyagaraya Nagar (T. Nagar) constituency, where he lost by a razor-thin margin of 137 votes in the 2021 elections. Sathyanarayanan claimed that 13,000 AIADMK supporters' names were "selectively deleted" by DMK-linked polling officials, while deceased voters lingered on the rolls and population growth (from 2.08 lakh voters in 1998 to just 2.45 lakh in 2021) suggested "stagnant" manipulation. "This isn't just an error, it's a constitutional violation under Articles 14, 19, and 21," his counsel argued, seeking a court-directed re-verification of all 229 booths.
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Unlike the annual Special Summary Revision which only updates new/deleted entries the SIR demands proactive submission: Every voter must fill an enumeration form (downloadable from the ECI website or via BLOs), with BLOs collecting copies and providing acknowledgements. "No documents needed unless details mismatch the existing list," Rajagopalan clarified. First-time voters (18+) and inter-state migrants must submit declaration forms with age/ID proofs like Aadhaar or birth certificates.
The process, part of ECI's Phase 2 nationwide drive, addresses "changing demographics, migration, and multiple registrations," per ECI directives. Claims and objections open December 9, 2025, closing January 31, 2026, with the final roll published February 7, well before Tamil Nadu's May 2026 polls. Rajagopalan assured the bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan that the exercise would adhere to Supreme Court guidelines from the Bihar SIR case, where the top court refused a stay despite similar "NRC fears." The bench directed ECI to file Bihar-related SC orders and adjourned the matter for a week.
