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2 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 30, 2026 08:13 PM IST
“Fair rolls lead to fair polls. That’s the moment today and India is in it,” CEC Gyanesh Kumar said. (File Photo)
Days after the Supreme Court ruled that the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was constitutional, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Saturday said “fair rolls lead to fair polls”.
In what was his first public remarks since the apex court pronounced its judgment on Wednesday, Kumar underlined the importance of “fair” electoral rolls. He was addressing a conference of legal counsels representing the ECI, at the EC’s India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) in Dwarka.
“Fair rolls lead to fair polls. That’s the moment today and India is in it,” Kumar said.
The conference began on Saturday with demonstrations and briefings by EC officials on “electoral roll management, SIR, and polling and counting procedures, showcasing the transparency, accuracy, and safeguards that uphold the integrity of India’s electoral process,” the EC said in a post on X. Kumar, along with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, addressed the legal counsels.
The EC had on June 24, 2025 ordered the SIR of electoral rolls of the country, breaking from the practice of the past 20 years where rolls were summarily revised annually and before each election. In an intensive revision, the rolls are prepared afresh. The EC’s order and the unprecedented method adopted by it had been challenged in the Supreme Court by civil society groups and Opposition leaders. The court ruled on Wednesday that the exercise was constitutional.
The SIR has been completed in 10 states and three Union Territories so far, leading to the electoral rolls being trimmed by 5.58 crore.
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