“The demography panel led by a retired Supreme Court judge is likely to study the exclusion of names from the voters’ list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise conducted in 13 States and Union Territories so far,” a senior government official told The Hindu.
The High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes that was notified by the Union Home Ministry on May 26 held its first meeting on Tuesday (June 2, 2026). “The panel has asked for documents from several government departments,” the official said.
Its mandate is to study the demographic changes arising from illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons and recommend an appropriate institutional mechanism for “population stabilisation”.
The SIR deleted around 6.5 crore names from electoral rolls, around 11%, that earlier stood at 58.88 crore in the 13 States and UTs. SIR is a document-based process that shifts the burden of proof on the electors. The deleted names include the dead and those who have migrated.
Around 27 lakh out of 91 lakh people deleted from voter rolls in West Bengal have challenged the removal of their names before judicial panels and those appeals are under adjudication.
Census fieldwork contradicts government data, enumerators asked to revisit, review data
On May 27, the Supreme Court, while upholding the SIR exercise in Bihar, said that the Election Commission of India was well within its authority to verify citizenship to the limited extent of determining inclusion or exclusion from the electoral roll. The court directed the poll body to refer, within the next four weeks, the names of electors who were part of the 2003 electoral roll but were purged in the Bihar SIR on the grounds of being non-citizens to the Centre for adjudication by a competent authority under the Citizenship Act.
The official said the exclusions of names from SIR rolls and the circumstances around will be studied by the panel. “We need to understand why were they deleted, how were their names inserted in the first place. The committee has written to government departments concerned seeking the details,” the official said.
The Ministry’s notification said the panel will also recommend “a well-organised and permanent operational system for the legal, fair and time bound identification, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants already residing in the country.”
The Ministry said the existing institutional framework has not been adequately equipped to undertake coordinated, evidence-based, and time-bound evaluation and response to such demographic shifts, adding that extensive challenges have arisen from demographic changes, including due to illegal immigration.
The recently released National Family Health Survey-6 data for 2023-24 shows that India’s Total Fertility Rate, the average number of women per children, had stabilised at 2.0, below the replacement level of 2.1. Population Census, which gives a clear picture of migration and demographic changes, was last done in 2011 and the next population count will be in 2027.
The panel is headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Prakash Prabhakar Navlekar. Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, retired IAS officer Durga Shanker Mishra who served as Uttar Pradesh’s chief secretary, retired IPS officer Balaji Srivastava, the former Director General Bureau of Police Research and Development, and Shamika Ravi, who is part of PM’s Economic Advisory Council, are the members of the committee. The Joint Secretary (Foreigners-I), Home Ministry, is the member secretary of the committee.
Published - June 02, 2026 09:50 pm IST
Source: The Hindu - India News
