The NRC and the SIR, side by side
The National Register of Citizens is a register of citizens kept under the Citizenship Act. The Special Intensive Revision was a revision of the electoral rolls under the law on elections. The table sets the two against each other. Each cell names the statements further down the page that support it.
What the law provides
The Citizenship Act and the rules made under it in 2003 provide for two registers. One is a register of citizens, the NRC. The other is a register of everyone who usually lives in a place, whether a citizen or not, the Population Register. The rules draw the register of citizens from the Population Register after verification.
Assam's NRC
Assam's register was first prepared in 1951. It was updated under the Supreme Court's supervision, by a method the rules set out for Assam alone. Applicants had to show that they or an ancestor appeared on the 1951 NRC or on an electoral roll up to midnight of 24 March 1971, or lived in India before that date, through a listed document.
The National Population Register
The Population Register lists everyone who usually lives in a place, and asks nothing about citizenship. It was prepared in 2010 and updated in 2015. A further update, planned with the census of 2021, was put off.
A nationwide NRC
Asked in the Lok Sabha whether a register of citizens would be prepared for the whole country, the Ministry of Home Affairs has given the same answer each time it was found.
The SIR and citizenship
The SIR was ordered by the Election Commission under the law on electoral rolls. The Constitution allows only citizens to be enrolled, so the revision asked who could be on the roll. The Supreme Court ruled on the limits of that enquiry on 27 May 2026.
Assam's Special Revision of 2025-26
Assam's roll was revised in 2025-26 under an order of its own, with rules that differed from the SIR's. The Assam page sets out its figures.
Reported in the press, with no document to confirm it
A figure that reached us through the press. It is attributed to the outlet that printed it, and none of the statements above rests on it.