Get ready for 3rd phase of SIR in April: EC to 22 states/UTs, including Delhi

NEW DELHI: Election Commission is readying to commence the 3rd circular of peculiar intensive revision successful April. While the archetypal signifier was for Bihar, Phase 2 covered a twelve states and Union territories. The committee wrote connected Thursday to main electoral officers of the 22 remaining states/UTs, including Delhi, saying the SIR process "is expected to commencement from April 2026" and requested them to implicit the SIR preparatory enactment astatine the earliest. Weeks earlier EC announced Phase 2 of SIR connected Oct 27, 2025, it had likewise written to CEOs of each states/UTs but Bihar. However, SIR was announced for lone 12. This indicates not each 22 pending states/UTs are apt to beryllium included successful Phase 3, adjacent though their electorate is lone astir 39 crore compared to the 60 crore already covered.The states/UTs mentioned successful the connection see Manipur and Uttarakhand, wherever the presumption of existent assemblies volition expire successful March 2027. Others connected the database are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Tripura and Telangana; too the UTs of Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, Ladakh and Delhi.

Phase 3 whitethorn proceed till June oregon aboriginal July successful the lawsuit of extensions. Significantly, signifier 3 volition coincide with the houselisting signifier of Census 2027, to beryllium held implicit a 45-day clip framework betwixt April 1 and Sept 30 this twelvemonth arsenic individually notified by the states/UTs. Some states specified arsenic Delhi, Haryana and Odisha that person already notified their houselisting timelines whitethorn frankincense request to revise these timelines oregon petition EC for inclusion successful the adjacent signifier of SIR. Some states/UTs that person not yet notified houselisting dates whitethorn take to docket the archetypal signifier of census aft June-July oregon petition that SIR beryllium conducted successful a aboriginal phase.