SIR: BLO to visit homes of issued notices, personal hearing only in exceptional cases; read the full ECI statement | Today’s news

The Election Commission on Saturday said people issuing notices during the ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR) due to uncharted records or logical inconsistencies will generally not have to appear for the personal hearing. The EC said Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will instead visit their homes to collect documents and upload them on ECINet.

The survey panel said hearings would only be held in exceptional cases, preferably online, and an adult family member could appear for the voter if authorized to do so.

SIR Notification: Full Election Commission Statement:

In case of any person who has been issued a notice during the ongoing SIR, for uncharted and logical discrepancies, the BLO will visit the homes of such persons to collect the documents and then upload them on ECINet for the decision of the ERO. These persons do not need to be summoned to the ERÚ/AERO office for a hearing.

Only in exceptional circumstances decided by the ERO will the hearing be held preferably online. If necessary, the voter can authorize any adult family member to attend the meeting on his behalf. Enhanced facilities for online hearing.

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ii. DEOs (District Electoral Officers) will create adequate number of assistance services/order of special camps for hostel dwellers, labourers, poor people, homeless etc. as required.

iii. The declaration annexed to Form 6 for SIR was upheld by the Supreme Court. For non-SIR periods, the forms applicable under the Rules (Registration of Voters Rules, 1960) shall be used.

iv. Field workers have role-based access to the ECINET system in accordance with their legal authority. A committee headed by the Chief Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC) and including an independent expert from IIT/IIIT will review ECINET to re-check its compliance with the provisions of laws and rules and submit a report to the Commission.

Various updates to the portal have already been made in the last few months based on the suggestions of the state CEOs. In the event that field officers require additional flexibility, it will be operationalized. From now on, all new initiatives related to IT modules and portals will be discussed in the Committee of Officials (COO) before being approved by the Commission.

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v. In view of a request received from the Director General of Delhi, the period for filing claims and objections by the Commission has been extended to 30 October 2026. The time for disposal of notices and claims and objections has been extended to 30 November 2026. Based on a request received from the Director General of Maharashtra, the period for filing claims and objections has been extended by the Commission to October 2 Maharashtra2 Maharashtra. The time for disposal of notices and claims and objections in Maharashtra has been extended to 10 November 2026.

vi. For all meetings of the committee, a meeting agenda will be sent out in advance and minutes will be taken.

vii. APARs {Annual Performance Appraisal Reports} of all officials will be completed within the stipulated time frame i.e. 31st December every year.

viii. The approval of the commission will be taken for foreign trips of officers.

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ix. All instructions given by the Commissioners to the officers of the Commission will be carefully followed.

2. SIR has already been completed in 20 states/UTs including Bihar and West Bengal. Any person whose name was omitted during the SIR or later, and any person including a youth/first-time voter, may apply to the concerned ERO to include his name in the electoral rolls in the process of continuous updating. The CEOs have been directed to facilitate the same. The Director Generals, DEOs, ERÚ will immediately launch a special drive for the registration of these voters.

3. It is further reiterated that

i. The letter to the Cabinet Secretary was not related to any policy matter of the Commission or the IT Department but was related to the work of an officer on deputation to the ECI. The redistribution of work orders issued by the appropriate officer were not actually implemented after the orders of the two commissioners, and DEC’s oversight of the IT division was never actually revoked.

ii. In recent months, the Commission has taken a number of decisions across the country, including the SIR. The SIR order issued on 06/24/2025 for all States/UTs starting with Bihar followed by West Bengal and 30 other States/UTs was issued with unanimous approval of the Commission. The same was confirmed by the Supreme Court of India in its order dated 27.5.2026. The SIR schedule for 12 States and UTs was issued on 27.10.2025 and the schedule for 19 States/UTs was issued on 14.05.2026 with the unanimous approval of the Commission. The final number of voters will be known only after the final publication in the remaining 12 states of Phase III.

iii. The Goa CEO directed the concerned BLOs to conduct door-to-door visits to the omitted voters to collect their forms. Form 6 for inclusion has already been filled by 81 voters out of 97.