Delhi SIR: 94% of voters flagged over discrepancies cleared for final roll

The Election Commission has until November 30 to resolve pending cases, with Delhi’s final electoral roll scheduled for publication on December 4.

Roughly 94% of the 3.3 million people –– flagged either for logical discrepancies or not having a link to the 2002 base roll –– have successfully argued their case and will be included in the final roll after the special intensive revision (SIR), the Delhi chief electoral officer (CEO) said on Tuesday.

Delhi’s draft electoral roll was published on August 31. (Praful Gangurde/ HT Photo/ Representational)

Data showed that 3,126,576 of the 3,314,032 notices issued to electors were disposed of by Tuesday and marked for inclusion in the final roll, accounting for 94.34% of the total. The remaining cases are to be disposed of by November 30, the deadline prescribed by the Election Commission of India.

Delhi’s final roll is set to be published on December 4.

“We had set a deadline of November 25 for disposal of claims and objections. With the pace the work is progressing, the notices should be cleared within a week,” an official said on the condition of anonymity.

Two categories of voters flagged during SIR

The 3.3 million-strong category comprised two groups.

The first group, logical discrepancies, had 1,934,243 million people facing the prospect of being struck off over name mismatches, typos, age gaps between parents and applicants, and number of children. Among these, 1,896,675 or 98.05% cases were resolved and kept for inclusion in the final electoral roll, the CEO said.

The second group, no-mapping, comprised 1,379,789 electors who couldn’t show sufficiently strong linkages to a name appearing in the 2002 rolls, the base for SIR. Among these, 89.13% or 1,229,901 cases were resolved and kept for inclusion in the final electoral roll, the CEO said.

“There were over 1.9 million cases pertaining to logical discrepancies. Of these, 98% have been resolved. The cases pertaining to non-mapping are also being resolved,” a senior poll official said, also on condition of anonymity.

This category of 3.3 million people –– which included chief minister Rekha Gupta, former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy prime minister LK Advani, external affairs minister S Jaishankar, and election commissioner SS Sandhu –– represented a major sticking point with SIR.

After notices were sent following the release of the draft roll, protests broke out as ordinary citizens reported hardships and problems attending hearings over insignificant clerical errors.

EC eases verification rules for voters issued notices

Battling mounting criticism, ECI announced sweeping changes in the SIR procedure on September 26, saying voters issued notices “for being unmapped and logical discrepancies” will no longer need to appear for a personal hearing before the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO). Booth Level Officers (BLOs) would visit such voters at home to collect documents, which will be uploaded to the ECINet portal “for decision by the ERO”, the poll body said.

A hearing would be held “only in exceptional circumstances, as decided by the ERO,” and “preferably” be conducted online, the poll panel said. The commission said “any adult member of the family can be authorised by the elector to attend the hearing on their behalf, if required.”

Till then, applicants had to physically appear before EROs on a prescribed date and time to furnish their papers. The facility of home visits was largely limited to the controversial category of VIP voters.

“Further, in light of ECI latest instructions dated 29.9.2026, EROs and AEROs have collected documents and 18,96,675 (98.05%) cases have been resolved and parked for final roll. It is informed that remaining cases of logical discrepancy shall be disposed of shortly. It is further informed that as per ECI guidelines, the notices are to be disposed of by 30.11.2026,” the press note said.

Over 100,000 special camps held across Delhi

The CEO also said it held more than 100,000 special camp sessions across all 14,947 polling stations in the city between September 20 and October 25, in addition to camps held in colleges and universities.

In these sessions, the CEO received 38,849 forms in total. Of these, 27,510 were Form 6 applications for inclusion of names in the electoral roll, 610 were Form 7 applications related to objections against the proposed inclusion of a name, and 10,729 were Form 8 applications for shifting of residence, correction of entries, replacement of voter identity cards and marking of persons with disabilities.

More than 388,000 applications received since draft roll

The data showed that 388,429 forms were received since the publication of the draft electoral roll on August 31. This included 267,441 Form 6 applications, 20,074 Form 7 applications and 100,914 Form 8 applications.

The claims and objections period ends on October 30. The CEO’s office urged residents to check their names in the draft roll and submit the relevant forms if their names were missing or their details required correction.

SIR began in Delhi on June 30. At the time, the roll comprised 14,510,299 people. The draft electoral roll, published on August 31, contained 9,753,577 electors, dropping nearly 4.76 million people or 32.8% of the pre-SIR roll.

The CEO said booth-level officers were also conducting door-to-door visits to identify eligible voters left out of the draft roll and assist them with enrolment. “ERO/AERO shall not delete any entry/name from the draft electoral roll without giving a fair and reasonable opportunity to the person concerned without opportunity to be heard,” the press note said.