Former Judges to Probe SIR Voter List Deletions, Hold Public Hearings

A five-member commission of retired Supreme Court and High Court judges will examine the Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, including whether eligible citizens were wrongly removed from the SIR voter list. The Lawyers' Association for Constitution (LAFC) announced the Independent Commission of Former Judges on the Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls in a press release on October 2, 2026.

LAFC said the commission was set up in response to growing concerns raised by citizens about the design, implementation and consequences of the exercise, and that it will function with complete autonomy. It will examine the constitutional and statutory validity of the SIR, its methodology, and its overall impact on eligible voters.

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Who Will Lead the Inquiry

The commission is chaired by Justice Madan B. Lokur, former judge of the Supreme Court. Its other members are Justice A.K. Patnaik, former Supreme Court judge; Justice Badar Durrez Ahmad, former Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court; Justice Rekha Sharma, former judge of the Delhi High Court; and Justice Anjana Prakash, former judge of the Patna High Court.

The central question before the panel is whether the exercise retained every eligible citizen on the SIR voter list while properly excluding ineligible entries. To answer it, full and regional benches will travel across the country to hear testimony from affected citizens, civil society groups and experts. A Research Wing will collate and analyse data on additions to and deletions from the SIR voter list nationwide, and a Legal Support Team will review the relevant laws, notifications and verification processes for compliance with constitutional safeguards.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Prashant Bhushan, Chander Uday Singh, Prashanto Chandra Sen, Raju Ramachandran, Rebecca Mammen John, Warisha Farasat and Vrinda Grover, among others, will provide legal advice.

A coordination team and secretariat will be housed at LAFC. The release states that the judges alone are responsible for the findings, and that neither the sponsoring organisations nor the supporting committees will influence their conclusions. The commission aims to release its final report to the public by December 2026.

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Why a Probe Into the SIR Voter List Matters

The inquiry comes four months after the Supreme Court upheld the SIR. On May 27, 2026, a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant ruled that the Election Commission acted within its powers, and held that it may conduct a limited inquiry into citizenship while revising electoral rolls, though it cannot finally determine citizenship. The exercise began in Bihar in June 2025 and has since been extended to other states in phases.

The commission has no statutory powers. It cannot summon officials, compel the Election Commission to share records, or order that any name be restored to the SIR voter list, and its findings will not bind the government or the poll body.

Even so, the inquiry could matter in several ways. A panel that includes two former Supreme Court judges carries credibility that is hard to dismiss. Public hearings across states can build a documented, on-the-record account of individual voters removed from the SIR voter list, the kind of ground-level evidence that rarely surfaces in courtroom arguments.

When the Supreme Court upheld the exercise, it found the process proportionate and backed by procedural safeguards. The commission's hearings and data could show whether those safeguards actually protected voters on the ground. That record could inform future litigation, parliamentary debate and public scrutiny of how the country's voter rolls are revised.