Delhi SIR: All deadlines pushed, final roll in Dec

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday extended the deadline for filing claims and objections under Delhi’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by a month, giving voters time until October 30 to seek inclusion or raise objections

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday extended the deadline for filing claims and objections under Delhi’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls by a month, giving voters time until October 30 to seek inclusion or raise objections. The deadline for disposal of notices, claims and objections has also been extended to November 30, following a request from Delhi’s chief electoral officer.

The extension comes amid the issue of notice to 3.16 million voters in Delhi, citing reasons of “no mapping” or “logical discrepancies” in the draft rolls.

The original schedule had provided voters time until September 30 to file claims and objections, while a deadline of October 29 was set for disposal of claims, followed by publication of the rolls on November 4. However, as per the revised schedule, the final rolls will now be published on December 4.

A senior Delhi election official, who did not wish to be named, said, “By getting the extension, we will have more time to map out the people who have been sent notices and will get the discrepancies resolved in time. With the changes in norms, booth-level officers (BLOs) will now personally visit the people who have been sent notices, which will also require more time. Meanwhile, we are appealing to all, especially the young and first-time voters, to proactively submit their forms.”

The discrepancies include mismatches in an elector’s own name or a parent’s name, as well as unusual age differences between parents and children or between grandparents and grandchildren. An analysis of the notice data found that name mismatches accounted for 41% of the notices, with parent-name mismatches accounting for 24% and self-name mismatches for 17%. Age-related discrepancies accounted for 16% of the total.

Notices have also been issued to several prominent electors, including chief minister Rekha Gupta and former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. The election commission has clarified that receiving a notice does not by itself mean that an elector’s name has been deleted. The notice provides an opportunity to submit documents and establish eligibility.

Election officials cited low voter numbers seeking inclusion, following the publication of draft rolls on August 31, for the revised timeline. Only about 4% of those sent notices have resubmitted their forms until September 25. According to the Delhi chief electoral office, between August 31 and September 25, it received 127,218 Form-6 applications, 251 Form-6A applications, 2,477 Form-7 applications and 49,358 Form-8 applications.

Form 6 is used for inclusion of names in the electoral rolls, Form 6A for eligible overseas Indian electors, Form 7 for deletion or objection to an entry, and Form 8 for shifting of residence or modification of entries.

The commission has said that all those attaining the age of 18 as of October 1, 2026, can fill Form 6 for getting their names included in the rolls.

The ECI also notified a revised approach for inclusion of names of people who have received a notice. BLOs will make house visits, collect the required documents and upload them to ECINet for consideration by the electoral registration officer. Physical hearings will not ordinarily be required, with online hearings to be used in exceptional cases. An adult family member can also be authorised to attend a hearing on behalf of an elector.

A second official with the Delhi election commission said, “The commission has also directed district election officers to organise help desks and special camps for vulnerable groups, including people living in night shelters, labourers, poor people and homeless persons.”

The Delhi CEO’s office previously announced special camps at polling stations, in colleges and university campuses to assist voters with the process, while additional electoral registration officers were deployed to speed up disposal of notices and claims.

The Delhi BJP president Harsh Malhotra welcomed the ECI’s decision to extend the deadline for SIR claims and objections and related matters in Delhi by one month.

Malhotra said, “The meeting of all three commissioners of the Election Commission of India has embarrassed the entire opposition. It is unfortunate that some Opposition politicians, who are being rejected by the people, have for some time been running an organised campaign to undermine the dignity of the election commission out of political frustration.”

The Aam Aadmi Party has been calling for the resignation of the CEC, adding that he has “strangled” the foundation of democracy. “The CEC has committed a massive scam by deleting the names of 13 crore 37 lakh voters across the country. For this crime of ‘vote theft,’ he should be imprisoned, and the elections in which this scam occurred should be canceled,” said Rajya Sabha MP from Delhi Sanjay Singh.