Petitioners seek nationwide restoration of voter IDs for those excluded during SIR

New Delhi: Two petitioners challenging the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls have asked the poll body to make its revised relief process available to every voter excluded from the draft rolls, instead of restricting it to seven states.

Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri, in a November 10 letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, said voters categorised as Absent, Shifted, Dead or Duplicate (ASDD) should be allowed to submit enumeration forms and retain their original voter ID numbers.

The demand follows the ECI’s November 6 order, which permits voters left out of draft electoral rolls in Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Telangana and Nagaland to seek re-inclusion through enumeration forms rather than Form 6.

The petitioners said this relief should not be confined to voters in those states. They argued that people in the same legal position across the country deserve the same remedy.

They also objected to the treatment of voters who had already applied through Form 6 under earlier ECI instructions and received new EPIC numbers. Since Form 6 requires an applicant to declare that they are a first-time voter, the petitioners said such voters were being wrongly treated as new entrants despite having been on the electoral rolls earlier.

The Supreme Court had earlier flagged this issue during hearings in the Delhi SIR case, describing the requirement as a “structural incongruity.” The petitioners said voters who followed the ECI’s earlier directions should not lose their previous electoral record because of the revised procedure.

Their letter seeks permission for all ASDD-listed voters to file enumeration forms, cancellation of Form 6 applications already submitted by such voters, and restoration of their original EPIC numbers.

The petitioners also asked the ECI to make the reinstatement process more transparent. They want the Commission to publish regular updates through a dashboard or daily bulletins, showing how many ASDD voters have filed enumeration forms and how many have been approved.

They pointed out that 13.30 crore pre-existing voters were excluded from draft SIR rolls across the country. The current safeguards, however, cover only 4.52 crore voters in the seven states, leaving the remaining excluded voters without comparable relief.

Bhardwaj and Johri were also part of a delegation of Opposition parties and civil society groups that met Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer on November 9. The delegation sought restoration of voting rights for Delhi residents whose names were removed and later placed in ASDD categories.

It also asked that voters who had applied for re-enrolment through Form 6 after August 31 be given their original EPIC numbers. The delegation further demanded public disclosure of Form 7 deletion applications, verification by Booth Level Agents, timely notices to affected voters and an opportunity to be heard before deletions are approved.

It also sought special enrolment camps in unauthorised colonies, slum settlements and JJ clusters, with timings convenient for working residents.