Shillong, March 09 : India’s Electoral Rolls are the biggest database of electors across the globe with over 99 crore registered electors. In addition to the continuous updation of Electoral Rolls, the Election Commission conducts Annual Special Summary Revision (SSR) exercise every year for updation of electoral rolls which happens during the period of October-December every year with publication of final rolls in the following month of January. For the poll going States/UTs, SSR is also conducted prior to the elections. For the recently concluded SSR 2025, the schedule was issued on August 7, 2024 and the final rolls were published during Jan 6-10, 2025 and the participatory and transparent process is enumerated below:
1. At every booth, a Booth Level Officer (BLO) is appointed by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) amongst the officials of the state government.
2. At every booth, political parties also have the right to appoint Booth Level Agents (BLAs).
3. All BLAs have the right to verify the electoral roll of the concerned booth and raise a complaint for anomaly, if any.
4. After house-to-house field verification, the concerned BLO submits the recommendations to the concerned ERO.
5. After taking into cognizance the above facts, ERO verifies the details of each elector for updation of electoral rolls.
6. The draft electoral rolls prepared are published on the website and also made available to political parties and the public.
7. Only after verification of draft Electoral rolls and settling any claims and objections received during a one month period, final rolls are published which are made available to political parties and also available polling station wise on ECI website (https://voters.eci.gov.in/download-eroll).
8. If any person has any objection, he has the option to file the first appeal to the DM/District Collector/Executive Magistrate under section 24(a) of RP Act 1950.
9. Even if the person is not satisfied with the decision of the first appellate authority, a second appeal to Chief Electoral Officer of the concerned State/UT under section 24(b) of RP Act 1950 can be filed.For the recently concluded SSR, the relevant details as reported by CEOs of States/UTs are available at Annexure A.
As regards the issue of duplicate EPIC numbers, the Commission has already taken cognizance of the matter. Irrespective of an EPIC number, an elector who is linked to the electoral roll of a particular polling station can cast his vote at that polling station only and nowhere else.
Sample enquiry of over 100 electors reveals that electors with duplicate EPIC numbers are genuine electors. Since the allotment of EPIC series in the year 2000 to the States/UTs, some EROs did not use the correct series.
The issue of allotment of duplicate numbers due to incorrect series across States/UTs could not have been detected as the States/UTs were independently managing the electoral roll databases.
The Commission has now decided to resolve this long pending issue after detailed discussions within the technical teams and concerned CEOs in the next three months by ensuring a unique national EPIC number to the existing electors having a duplicate EPIC number and for future electors as well.
