SC to hear plea against deletion of names from Delhi electoral rolls under SIR on September 21

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear on September 21 a plea challenging the deletion of names from Delhi's electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said it would hear the matter on Monday, when other pleas relating to the SIR exercise are also listed.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioners Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri, submitted that the Election Commission has issued notices to 33 lakh of the 47 lakh people whose names were deleted from the draft electoral rolls in Delhi.

The petitioners have sought disclosure of the criteria, definitions, algorithmic parameters and operational guidelines used to classify voters under the "Logical Discrepancies" category.

"They have not disclosed the names of the people who have been issued notices or on what grounds they have been deleted. They have not disclosed which people the notices have been issued to, what are the logical discrepancies and how are they unmapped," Bhushan submitted.

The plea, filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, alleges violations of fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21, besides constitutional rights under Articles 325 and 326.

The petitioners have sought directions for publication of a consolidated, searchable list of all voters who have been issued notices during the Delhi SIR, along with their addresses and the specific reasons or categories for each notice.

They have also sought directions requiring authorities to specify the precise discrepancy and material facts forming the basis of each notice so that voters can effectively participate in the hearing process.

The plea further seeks to restrain deletion of names from the electoral rolls following proceedings based on notices that do not disclose the relevant factual particulars.

According to the petition, 33,12,919 voters were identified for notices on the grounds of "No Mapping" or "Logical Discrepancies". Of these, 13,79,785 were classified as having no mapping and 19,33,134 under logical discrepancies.

Bhushan alleged that the Delhi chief electoral officer's website had disclosed only the number of electors in these categories and not the names or other details of the affected voters.

The petitioners have contended that failure to publish the names of voters issued notices was contrary to an EC communication dated May 14.

The plea also contends that "Logical Discrepancies" has not been defined and that the May 14 communication does not prescribe specific criteria or parameters for determining when a voter would fall under the category.

It further states that the original SIR order dated June 24, 2025, did not mention such a flagging or algorithmic process.

The petitioners have alleged that no document or instruction specifying the definition and criteria has been placed on the Delhi CEO's website.

On August 31, the EC published draft electoral rolls in which 47 lakh voters were deleted from a total of 1.45 crore voters.

The poll panel had said more than 43.32 lakh voters were found to have shifted or were absent during the SIR, while over 2.82 lakh were found to have died and more than 1.41 lakh were enrolled at multiple places.