In another curious twist to the SIR (special intensive revision) of electoral rolls being conducted in Bihar, the Election Commission has denied any knowledge of an ‘independent appraisal committee’ — which it had claimed in its affidavit actually triggered the exercise!

So, is the Commission lying now, or did it lie to the Supreme Court — that is the question.

RTI applications filed by transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj and media outlet The Reporters’ Collective elicited the following response from the ECI: The commission claimed that it had no information about the independent appraisal committee and that no files, minutes of meetings or file notings were available to show how the decision to conduct a nationwide SIR was initiated, discussed, finalised and approved, or when.

When asked for a copy of the orders or guidelines pertaining to the 2003 rolls revision in Bihar, the ECI provided the 2025 guidelines and notification instead.

Nitin Sethi, trustee of the Reporters’ Collective Trust, notes that while a constitutional body directed nearly 80 million voters in Bihar to produce documents to establish their citizenship and voting rights within 30 days, it refuses to share its own records with the people.

Transparency activist Anjali Bhardwaj points out that similar records, files and notings were asked for in the electoral bonds case — and both the finance department and the State Bank of India had obliged. Why, then would the ECI refuse to share the details and what is it trying to hide, she asked.