Delhi HC seeks ECI’s reply to plea challenging guidelines to BLAs

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) response in a petition challenging its guidelines on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which require Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties to submit a personal undertaking verifying the particulars contained in enumeration and declaration forms by the electors

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday sought the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) response in a petition challenging its guidelines on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which require Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties to submit a personal undertaking verifying the particulars contained in enumeration and declaration forms by the electors.

After hearing the plea, Justice Amit Bansal sought a response from ECI and fixed August 12 as the next date of hearing. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Devender Yadav, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, in his petition argued that the ECI guidelines dated June 24, 2025, already assigned Booth Level Officers (BLOs) the responsibility of distributing enumeration forms, conducting house-to-house visits, collecting completed forms, and verifying the details and supporting documents.

The plea stated that the additional guidelines dated May 14, 2026, make it mandatory for BLOs to provide a personal undertaking confirming that they have verified the details mentioned in the enumeration and declaration forms submitted by the elector.

Since the duty of verification, along with the responsibility of giving a personal undertaking, has already been placed on the BLOs, there is no justification for requiring BLAs to give a similar undertaking certifying the same information, the petition stated.

This additional requirement, the petition said, is “arbitrary, unnecessary, and contrary to the additional dated May 14, 2026”.

The petition added neither the Representation of the People Act, 1950 nor the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 contain any provision empowering the ECI or any officer acting under its authority to impose such a requirement upon representatives of political parties.

“Section 23 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, mandates that the inclusion of any name in the electoral roll shall be made by the Electoral Registration Officer, and only after proper verification of facts in such manner as may be prescribed,” it said.

The petition also argued that BLAs are representatives of political parties and private individuals; they have no access to government databases, identity records, or any mechanism of official verification. They cannot be expected to independently verify the authenticity of documents or the identity of electors at each booth, the plea added.

After hearing the plea, Justice Amit Bansal sought a response from ECI and fixed August 12 as the next date of hearing.

The SIR is being conducted in Delhi with house-to-house BLO verification underway.