13 Crore Voter Names in SIR Row ? Former Union Minister Demands Answers

New Delhi : A fresh political and legal controversy has erupted around the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls after former Union Home Secretary and former Union minister R.K. Singh publicly criticised Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and questioned the legality of several aspects of the exercise.

In an open letter addressed to citizens, Singh alleged that the SIR process violates provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and accused the CEC of exercising powers in a manner he considers unlawful. Singh began his appeal by asking citizens whether they wanted India to continue as a democracy and argued that the controversy surrounding the electoral-roll revision deserved wider public attention.

His intervention comes amid an intensifying dispute over the functioning of the Election Commission, with legal petitions also challenging decisions connected with the SIR and seeking judicial scrutiny of the process.

Singh has argued that voters registered after 2003 could face difficulties in proving eligibility under the verification process and claimed that the burden of producing documents has effectively been placed on ordinary voters. He particularly raised concerns about poor, migrant and economically vulnerable voters, arguing that people who work away from their home districts may face difficulties returning repeatedly or arranging the documents required during verification.

Singh also claimed that approximately 13 crore names have been excluded from electoral rolls during the SIR exercise, describing the figure as potentially significant for future elections; however, this figure is part of claims made by critics of the exercise, and the final number of valid exclusions remains subject to the completion of the revision and appeals process.

Reuters has reported that around 130 million names were initially left out of draft lists during the wider verification exercise, while the Election Commission has maintained that the deletions are based on legal procedures and that its decisions were taken through institutional processes.

Singh further criticised the role of the CEC, alleging that decisions connected with the SIR were taken without adequate involvement of the other Election Commissioners. This issue has also become the subject of legal proceedings: a petition before the Supreme Court has challenged the functioning of the CEC and the legality of SIR-related decisions, alleging that some decisions were taken without the concurrence of the other two Election Commissioners.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the challenge, although the allegations remain matters for judicial consideration rather than established findings against the CEC. Singh also questioned the Opposition’s reported discussions about seeking the removal of Gyanesh Kumar through an impeachment-type process, arguing that such a route would not succeed without the required parliamentary numbers.

Instead, he called for criminal proceedings if the Opposition believed that statutory violations had occurred. His remarks come at a time when opposition parties and civil-society groups have intensified their criticism of the SIR, while the Election Commission has defended its procedures and rejected allegations that its electoral-roll work is politically motivated.

Reuters has reported that the ECI has also initiated a review of its voter-roll software following concerns raised about changes in the revision process and announced procedural measures including direct visits to voters in cases involving discrepancies. R.K. Singh, a former Union Home Secretary, entered electoral politics with the BJP and represented Arrah in the Lok Sabha in 2014 and 2019, he contested again in 2024 but was defeated.

His latest intervention therefore adds another prominent former government figure to the ongoing debate over electoral-roll revision, the powers of the Election Commission and the safeguards surrounding the right to vote. With court proceedings, political protests and institutional questions continuing, the controversy over SIR and the role of the CEC is now unfolding simultaneously in the political arena and before the judiciary.