‘Pehle vote gaya, phir jhuggi gayi’: SIR hearing lays bare voters’ ordeal in Delhi

A public hearing held on Thursday by an independent commission exposed widespread grievances regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Witnesses from Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana, and Bihar took an oath on the Constitution to testify before a panel presided over by former judges—Justices A. K. Patnaik, Rekha Sharma, and Anjana Prakash, detailing how their names were struck from voter lists despite submitting valid documentation.

Among those affected was Maya Devi (58), a domestic worker from Mayur Vihar Phase-I, whose shanty was recently demolished. Forced to live in a cramped kitchen-cum-room near Mayur Vihar metro station's Pillar 1, she discovered her name and those of her two daughters were missing from the voter list, even though her husband and son remained enrolled. Having resided in Delhi since age 13 and voted consistently—including in the 2025 assembly polls—she recounted her unsuccessful attempts to get help: “I called up the BLO to help me fill out the form so that I could re-enter the list. But he never came to me,” she lamented, adding, “Pehle vote gaya, phir jhuggi gayi.”

Also read: Delhi Police’s Rs 15.7 crore facial recognition CCTV tender flags surveillance concerns


Presentations from the Voter Adhikar Manch and Jan Sarokar detailed the massive scope of voter deletions in the national capital. While the January 2025 voter rolls listed over 1.5 crore people, roughly 11 lakh were removed during monthly purges before the SIR freeze, mostly between January and June 2026. The draft rolls released on August 31 further excluded more than 47 lakh voters, according TOI report.

Former West Bengal Lok Sabha MP Tarun Mondal testified that his name was deleted despite his family fulfilling all enrolment formalities. Stating that he had petitioned authorities up to the highest level, with only the President responding, he questioned: “How could I have been an MP if I was not a voter of India? Does that mean I am a Bangladeshi?”

Similarly, Kamal, a teacher from Bela Estate, noted that his family submitted over 500 enrolment forms for their razed slum, yet their status remains questioned. Having voted since 2002 and appeared on last year's rolls, he stated: “I was born here in 1986. My grandfather came here in 1913, and my father is around 70. Now, we are being told we are encroachers, though we submitted more than 500 enrolment forms.”

Also read: Delhi SIR: Poll officials begin reverification of voters removed from draft rolls

The panel also examined "logical discrepancies" used to challenge voter eligibility, such as sibling counts and narrow age gaps between parents and children. Voter Adhikar Manch findings indicated that Muslim voters in Delhi and Karnataka were disproportionately targeted at the notice stage due to these criteria. Sabir Ahmed, who led a citizens' audit in West Bengal, highlighted that relying on AI to flag such anomalies overlooked local social contexts like early marriage and motherhood.

To address these systemic flaws, the independent commission recommended collective public scrutiny over relying solely on individual claims and objections. They urged authorities to read draft rolls aloud at community gatherings so residents can collectively identify inclusions, exclusions, duplications, and misclassifications prior to finalisation.

Over 60% of 33 lakh SIR notice recipients in Delhi now verified

Following a recent easing of verification protocols by the Election Commission, over 60% of the 33 lakh Delhi voters who received SIR notices have now been verified. Under the revised guidelines, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are conducting door-to-door visits to gather documents, sparing citizens from attending in-person hearings at government offices—and are empowered to fix minor errors, such as spelling mistakes, without demanding extensive paperwork.

The notices were served in September to roughly 33 lakh individuals, including prominent figures such as Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, and BJP veteran L. K. Advani. Around 19 lakh voters were flagged for "logical discrepancies" (e.g., age or name mismatches), while nearly 14 lakh were marked as "unmapped" due to missing linkages with the 2002 SIR records. Recipients were required to submit proof of eligibility ahead of the final SIR electoral roll publication on December 4.