New Delhi: The Election Commission of India has refused to provide a copy of the 2003 Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in response to a Right to Information (RTI) query, and has instead provided a link to the June 2025 order for the present exercise which is underway in the poll-bound state.In a RTI filed by Anjali Bhardwaj, a transparency activist associated with Satark Nagrik Sangathan and the National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information, the Election Commission was asked to provide a copy of the order/notification under which the SIR of the electoral rolls in Bihar was carried out in 2003, a copy of the guidelines issued by the poll body for the exercise that specified the manner and procedure of revisions, the prescribed forms and list of documents required to be furnished.In its response on August 27, the poll body provided a link to the June 24, 2025, order announcing the SIR in Bihar.“In this regard, you may refer to Commission vide order dated 24.6.2025. The link of the said order is given below,” the RTI response said, providing the link that is already available on the Election Commission’s website.The Wire has reported that the 2003 order, which is neither on the Election Commission’s website nor on web archives, is referenced in its July 21 affidavit in the Supreme Court. However, the affidavit omits key details of the 22-year-old exercise.In its affidavit in the Supreme Court, the Election Commission has not attached a copy of the 2003 SIR order. While it refers to the 2003 exercise to establish that its duration was the same as that of the present revision, it only mentions the time given to provide enumeration forms and does not include dates for when claims and objections were filed or when the draft rolls and final rolls were published.“That the ECI has previously conducted SIRs more frequently, as has also been stated in the SIR order dated 24.06.2025. The last such exercise was undertaken in Bihar in 2002-2003, and the period of enumeration was from 15.07.2002 to 14.08.2022,” the affidavit stated.“The current SIR has an enumeration period from 25.06.2025 to 26.07.2025. Thus, the allegation that ECI is conducting the exercise hastily is misconceived,” it said.A major point of contention for the present exercise is the list of 11 documents being sought by the commission for electors to prove their eligibility. In the affidavit the Election Commission refers to four documents sought in the 2003 exercise and says in comparison that it has now listed 11 documents that electors can submit to prove their eligibility.Without providing a copy of the guidelines in the affidavit, the Election Commission said that during the 2003 SIR in Bihar, the guidelines prescribed four indicative documents (NRC register where available; citizenship certificate; valid passport or; birth certificate) in support of any claim of citizenship. In contrast, it said that during 2025 SIR in Bihar, 11 indicative documents are prescribed to support any claim of eligibility under Article 326.Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in his press conference on August 17 also referred to the 2003 exercise in response to a question on why the SIR is being conducted so close to assembly elections and that too during the flood season. Kumar said that the last iteration of the exercise in 2003 was also held in July but he skipped mentioning that assembly polls were not due until October 2005.‘No information’ on independent analysis for nationwide SIRIn its affidavit in the Supreme Court, the Election Commission had also said that an independent appraisal was conducted based on which the poll body decided to conduct the SIR across the country. While Bhardwaj in her RTI query sought a copy of the independent analysis and sought to know the reference numbers of all files in which the decision to initiate SIR across the country was processed and approved, a copy of the files on the decision, the poll body in its response only pointed to the June 24 guidelines.“For information, you may refer to Commission’s guidelines dated 24.06.2025 which is self explanatory and available on the Commission’s website,” it said, attaching the link.“Further no information in this regard is available in the Commission,” it said.Bhardwaj said that it was “surprising” that no such files were available with the Commission.“Typically, with the scale and nature of an exercise like a nationwide SIR, one would expect that there would have been correspondence and deliberations within the Commission and with other bodies, including various ministries, which would form part of the files held by the ECI. “Therefore, it is surprising, that the ECI has stated that no files vide which the decision to initiate a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) across the country in 2025 was processed and approved by the ECI, are available in the commission,” she said.As the election process comes under scrutiny, read The Wire’s coverage of the Bihar SIR, opposition’s allegations and more, here.