The Election Commission of India has extended Delhi’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls for the fourth time, moving publication of the final voter list from November 4 to December 4 and giving residents additional time to file claims and objections.
Under the revised schedule, residents can submit claims and objections until October 30. The deadline for disposing of notices, claims and objections has been extended to November 30. The Election Commission said the changes were made “in view of the request received from CEO Delhi”, following a letter sent by the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer on September 23.
The commission has also changed the process for voters who have received notices over discrepancies in their electoral records. Instead of appearing at an election office for a hearing, they can now submit documents through booth level officers, or BLOs. The officers will visit the voters’ homes, collect the documents and upload them on the ECINet platform for a decision by the Electoral Registration Officer.
The latest extension comes after the claims and objections phase recorded a comparatively low number of applications from people seeking fresh enrolment. Since the draft electoral rolls were published on August 31, Delhi has received 1.21 lakh Form 6 applications, which are used to seek registration as new electors, according to data from the Delhi CEO’s office.
The figures assume significance because of the scale of deletions and notices issued during the revision. Delhi had around 1.45 crore electors before the exercise. Of these, 97.5 lakh were included in the draft electoral roll, while around 47.5 lakh were classified as “uncollectible” after BLOs found them absent, shifted, dead or associated with duplicate entries, among other reasons.
Among the 97.5 lakh electors included in the draft roll, around 33.1 lakh—roughly one-third—were issued notices to establish their eligibility for inclusion in the final list. Of these, 13.79 lakh voters received notices because they could not link themselves to the electoral roll from the previous SIR, while 19.33 lakh were flagged for what the authorities described as “logical discrepancies” in their enumeration forms.
Several prominent voters, including former deputy prime minister L K Advani, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Election Commissioner S S Sandhu, former Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, have also received notices. Officials said the details of most of them had been validated through field verification and that their names had been reserved for inclusion in the final roll.
Sources in the Delhi CEO’s office said the request for additional time followed a meeting with representatives of political parties earlier in the week. An official said all parties had requested more time for filing claims and objections.
The Election Commission has directed district election officers to create adequate helpdesks and organise special camps for people living in night shelters, labourers, poor residents and homeless people. The Delhi CEO’s office is also conducting enrolment efforts for vulnerable groups, including homeless people, sex workers and transgender persons, through camps at night shelters and other locations.
The revision schedule had initially set October 7 as the deadline for publishing the final roll. It was subsequently changed to October 19, October 27 and November 4 before the latest decision moved the date to December 4. The next formal milestones are the October 30 deadline for claims and objections, the November 30 deadline for their disposal and publication of the final electoral roll on December 4.
