Daily News Capsules
1. SIR 2.0 announced in 12 states and UTs; final rolls on Feb 7
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday announced the launch of the second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across 12 states and Union Territories, covering roughly half of India’s nearly one billion-strong electorate in an exercise that will become a political flashpoint. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar said electoral rolls will be frozen in 10 states and two UTs at midnight on Monday. These include four states that go to the polls in 2026, three in 2027, three in 2028, and two in 2029 . The enumeration process will begin on November 4, with draft rolls to be published on December 9, and the final rolls on February 7, 2026. “SIR will ensure no eligible elector is left out and no ineligible elector is included in poll rolls,” Kumar said at a press conference. The 12 states and Union Territories covered are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Kumar said a separate provision of the Citizenship Act was applicable to Assam, which also goes to the polls in 2026. There will be separate revision orders issued for Assam, and a separate SIR date will be announced, he added. The current SIR marks the ninth such revision of electoral rolls since Independence, with the last conducted between 2002 and 2004.
Possible Question:
What challenges do large-scale electoral roll revisions face in India, particularly in states with high migration and seasonal displacement, and how can technology be used to improve accuracy while safeguarding citizens’ rights?
2. Tihar to get new wards to meet international standards
Inside Delhi’s Tihar Prison Complex, construction crews are working around the clock to finish two new high-security wards – designed not for hardened local criminals, but for white-collar fugitives the Indian government is seeking to extradite to the country. The wards, expected to be ready within 10 days, are being built in jail numbers 4 and 7 to house high-profile economic offenders whose extradition has long been stalled by concerns over Indian prison conditions, according to two officials familiar with the matter. The move comes after officials from Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) inspected Tihar in September to assess whether the facility could meet the standards required to house extradited individuals. Officials said the new wards are being constructed to comply with global human rights benchmarks such as the “United Nations’ Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners”, known better as the “Nelson Mandela Rules”. These rules mandate adequate space, ventilation, lighting, sanitation, and access to hygiene facilities. Human rights concerns have slowed proceedings in overseas courts against fugitives, including diamantaire Nirav Modi.
Possible Question:
How do international human rights norms, such as the Nelson Mandela Rules, shape India’s ability to secure extraditions of economic fugitives, and what broader reforms in prison infrastructure does this demand?
3. SC raps states over non-compliance in stray dogs case
The Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on states and Union territories (UTs) for failing to submit compliance reports from their animal husbandry departments and local bodies on the implementation of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023, warning that top bureaucrats would face personal accountability for their inaction in controlling the stray dog menace. A three-judge bench led by Justice Vikram Nath directed the chief secretaries of all states and UTs to be present before it on November 3 along with explanations for why no compliance affidavits had been filed despite ample time. The bench noted that only Telangana, West Bengal, and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had filed their reports so far. The court reminded the states that they had been given three months in August to apprise the bench of the progress made in implementing the ABC Rules — the framework that requires local authorities to run sterilisation and anti-rabies programmes based on the catch-neuter-vaccinate-release model.
Possible Question:
What are the key provisions of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) Rules, 2023, and how can states balance public safety with animal welfare in managing the stray dog population?
4. Justice Kant recommended as next CJI, to be 1st from Haryana
Justice Surya Kant, who was recommended on Monday as the next Chief Justice of India by CJI Bhushan R Gavai, is poised to make history as the first jurist from Haryana to assume the nation’s highest judicial office. His appointment, ahead of Justice Gavai’s retirement on November 23, will mark not just a transition in leadership at the Supreme Court, but also the quiet culmination of a remarkable judicial journey rooted in humility, conviction and poetry. On the day he handed over a copy of the letter recommending justice Kant’s name to the Centre, CJI Gavai said: “Like me, justice Kant also belongs to the class in society that has seen struggles at every stage in life, which makes me confident that he would be best suited to understand the pain and sufferings of those who need the judiciary to protect their rights.” Those who have known justice Kant trace his story to the early 2000s when, at the age of 38, he became Haryana’s youngest Advocate General, a role in which his skill and sincerity drew wide recognition. Barely four years later, in 2004, he was elevated as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, still in his early forties.
Possible Question:
Assess the significance of diversity in the composition of India’s higher judiciary. How does regional and social representation influence judicial legitimacy and access to justice?
5. SC allows government to review Vodafone Idea AGR dues
In a major relief for Vodafone Idea, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Union government to review and reconsider the additional demand in adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues against the financially distressed telecom operator, marking what could be a fresh breath of life for the beleaguered company struggling to stay afloat in India’s hyper-competitive telecom sector. The company currently faces an additional demand of ₹9,450 crore in AGR dues, including the dues for the period up to financial year 2016-17, which the company pressed for reassessment in the light of the 2020 Deduction Verification Guidelines. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Bhushan R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran said, “The Union is willing to examine the issues further. Taking into consideration that the government has acquired stake (in the company) and the issue is likely to have an impact on 20 crore (200 million) consumers, we see no impediment in the Union government reconsidering the issue and taking an appropriate decision under the law.” It emphasised that the permission to review was being granted in the larger public interest and “in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case.”
Possible Question:
What lessons does the AGR dispute highlight about the regulatory environment in India’s telecom sector, and how should policy balance revenue concerns with sectoral sustainability?
Editorial Snapshots
A. The quest for perfect electoral rolls
The freshly announced special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 12 states and Union Territories is orders of magnitude larger than the previous iteration in Bihar, and is likely to cover roughly half of India’s electorate. In large and politically sensitive states such as Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, the exercise might turn into a flashpoint and an electoral issue. A major difference (from the Bihar effort) is the inclusion, from the start of the process, of Aadhaar as one of the documents an elector can furnish — its exclusion was among the most controversial decisions in Bihar — though chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s statement that it is not a proof of citizenship but only of identity means that field implementation will have to be keenly watched for clarity. Three things are of note. One, a clean and updated electoral roll is beneficial for a democracy but the process must be empathetic and sensitive to ground realities. It must be shorn of political sloganeering, especially around foreigners (ECI is yet to publicly announce just how many foreigners were removed in Bihar) and require the active participation of all political parties. Two, despite allegations of mass disenfranchisement, the Bihar SIR showed there is no obvious statewide pattern to the deletions, a fact further underlined by this newspaper’s data analysis. But what was also clear was that local vagaries such as seasonal floods, economic migration, and gender disenfranchisement had a deep impact on the final rolls. Three, as this newspaper has noted before, the quest for a perfect electoral roll is a fraught exercise. At multiple points in independent India’s history, the number of electors has not matched the corresponding number found eligible in the census. When a balance is to be struck between empathy and strict statistical purity, some leniency in favour of the former might do the world’s largest democracy good.
Q: Examine the role of all stakeholders — the Election Commission, political parties, civil society, and the judiciary — in strengthening the credibility and inclusiveness of India’s electoral rolls.
B. In Bihar, the missing Muslim legislator
One outcome of a polarised polity is that the community that becomes the focal point of polarisation runs the risk of losing out on electoral representation. This is evident in Bihar, where the percentage of Muslim MLAs has always been less than the community’s share in the state’s population. Muslims constitute 16.9% of Bihar’s population, but the share of Muslim MLAs has swung between 6% and 12%. In absolute numbers, it peaked at 28 in the 1985 polls that the Congress won; the lowest was 16 in 2005, when the NDA won office for the first time. In 2020, the tally was 19, which may have influenced the seat distribution this time. Just 36 Muslim candidates have been fielded by the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan: The NDA has nominated just five Muslims and 31 are on Mahagathbandhan tickets. This pattern is not surprising. Parties lean towards their core constituencies in ticket distribution. The Mahagathbandhan, especially the RJD, draws its strength mostly from Muslims and Yadavs (M-Y). The party has 19 Muslim candidates, while its ally, the Congress, has fielded 10. The NDA, sensing low traction among Muslims, is appealing to the non-Muslim voter; in fact, the absence of Muslim candidates (the BJP has none) may amount to virtuous signalling in a divided polity. In contrast, the Mahagathbandhan, eager to expand beyond the M-Y axis, has sought to use the instrument of tickets to woo the extremely backward castes — the largesse to the Vikassheel Insaan Party confirms this outreach. The rise of the AIMIM, which has been aggressive in highlighting the electoral alienation of minorities, is an outcome of this politics. In the larger political schema, it does not address Muslim marginalisation; instead, it strengthens majoritarianism. The upshot is the trend of Muslim under-representation in the legislature — Bihar is not an exception — is likely to continue.
Possible Question:
Critically examine the impact of identity-based politics on minority representation in Indian legislatures. What institutional mechanisms could strengthen inclusive representation in deeply polarised states?
Fact of the day
UPSC selects 42 for DGCA posts in attempt to ease staffing crunch: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has selected 42 candidates for appointment as Assistant Directors of operations in the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), in a large scale recruitment in four years, people familiar with the matter said, adding that the candidates will start working by the end of November. The appointments are expected to strengthen India’s aviation safety oversight, and come months after Hindustan Times reported DGCA’s staffing crunch on July 19. On July 21, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu told Parliament that DGCA would recruit 190 people by the end of October. The recommendations were made against 51 advertised vacancies, according to the final list published by the UPSC on October 15. According to documents reviewed by HT, until June this year, 48% of DGCA’s 1,063 technical posts were vacant. The vacancies included 400 posts sanctioned and added in 2022 . Some of the vacancies were in key areas: for instance, there were six posts of deputy director general vacant in the airworthiness section, six more in operations, and two in air safety. The people cited in the first instance said the new appointments are expected to significantly augment DGCA’s technical strength, particularly at a time when air traffic movements and fleet sizes are expanding rapidly.
