Two election commissioners objected 14 times to SIR-related decisions: ‘Indian Express’ report

Two of the three Election Commissioners have formally objected at least 14 times in the last 10 months to decisions and orders, pertaining to the special intensive revision of voter rolls, that they said were made without their knowledge, an investigation by The Indian Express has found.

The first phase of the exercise began in June 2025 in Bihar. The voter roll revision is under the third phase as of now covering 19 states and Union Territories. More than 13 crore names have been removed from voter lists and draft rolls in the three phases so far. Since the nationwide exercise began, concerns have been raised that the revision could eliminate genuine voters from the rolls and even shape electoral outcomes, as Scroll has reported.

The exercise is being conducted under the supervision of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.

On Wednesday, The Indian Express reported that Sandhu and Joshi raised objections on matters such as new voter registration, deletion and restoration of voters, filing of appeals against voter inclusion, and custody and security of the electoral rolls.

The objections raised by Sandhu and Joshi were addressed to the Election Commission and also copied to Kumar. Some were also sent to deputy election commissioners.

In one written objection, Sandhu said that the poll panel had...

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