Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi declared the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls illegal and called for its reversal, speaking at a book launch organized by The Hindu Group in Delhi on September 23, 2026.
The remarks were made during the launch of “The Delimitation Debate: The Union and its Units,” a collection of essays on representation, federalism and demographic change. Quraishi, who served as CEC from 2010 to 2014, said the purity of electoral rolls has been a legal requirement for 75 years and that the ongoing SIR exercise is “dubious” and “highly undesirable.”
He cited a recent Indian Express report that revealed internal disagreements between Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and fellow commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi over the legality of the SIR, describing the report as “exposing the fact that the Election Commissioners themselves have been questioning the procedures.”
On the same panel, Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas alleged that the SIR and the pending delimitation of constituencies are linked, arguing that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeks to shape both processes to secure electoral advantage.
Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh warned that the Modi government has not prorogued the Monsoon Session of Parliament even after a 41‑day adjournment, suggesting the delay is intended to push a Delimitation Bill through during the Navratri period in early October.
Ramesh also noted that the government lacks the two‑thirds majority needed for a constitutional amendment to reserve 33 % of seats for women, a change that would be tied to the delimitation exercise based on the 2011 census.
Other panelists, including former Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy director Sanjeev Chopra and former Haryana Additional Chief Secretary Raja Sekhar Vundru, debated broader reforms such as creating smaller states or adopting a two‑round voting system to ensure majority support for elected representatives.
The discussion highlighted concerns from several smaller and northeastern states—Punjab, Haryana, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Assam—about being excluded from consultations on delimitation, echoing Ramesh’s call for a more inclusive process.
The Hindu’s editor Suresh Nambath emphasized that the book aims to frame the delimitation debate not as a North‑South clash but as an examination of democratic and federal principles, urging that both concepts reinforce rather than undermine each other.