Is the right to vote a fundamental right? Discuss the position of the Election Commission of India while undertaking the revision of electoral rolls. Can it also examine the question of citizenship of the voters?

Use it to show how the Commission's roll revision power under Article 324 is now contested from inside the Commission and by Opposition MPs, raising questions about its limits.

• Election Commissioners Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally recorded objections 14 times in 10 months on the SIR, including being kept out of decisions and on additions and deletions of names.
• The March 2026 removal notice against CEC Gyanesh Kumar listed charges including mass disenfranchisement through the SIR.
• Safeguard proposal: publish dissent notes and reasons for roll deletions, with a clear appeal route, so roll revision does not cause disenfranchisement.

Use it for the constitutional and statutory basis of the EC's roll revision power and, per an op-ed, the Supreme Court's view that citizenship determination lies with the MHA, not the EC.

• Article 326 gives the vote to every citizen aged 18 or above not disqualified by law (age lowered from 21 by the 61st Amendment, 1988); citizenship is therefore a condition of the franchise.
• Article 324 vests superintendence of electoral rolls in the EC and Section 21(3) of the RP Act, 1950 allows special revision; the Supreme Court upheld the SIR on 27 May 2026 as within this mandate.
• According to an Indian Express op-ed, the Court made clear that deciding citizenship is for the MHA, not the EC; Section 9 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016 says Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship.

Use it to explain the source and limits of the Commission's power in roll revision, and the tension between purging ineligible entries and protecting the adult citizen's vote.

• The SIR rests on Article 324 and Section 21(3) of the RP Act, 1950, which lets the Commission order a special revision of rolls at any time; it began in Bihar in June 2025.
• Article 326 guarantees the vote to every adult citizen not disqualified by law; critics say the SIR put the burden of proof on voters, while the ECI says it removes dead, shifted and duplicate entries.
• On 29 September 2026 the ECI ordered plain statutory Form 6, dropping a July question on whether applicants or parents were on the roll after the previous SIR, which EC Sukhbir Singh Sandhu called "unauthorised/illegal".