Three United Nations-appointed Special Rapporteurs have written to the Centre expressing concern over discrimination against minorities during the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and sought details of steps taken to ensure eligible voters were not prevented from participating in the 2026 Assembly elections.
The letter, dated May 1, was sent by UN Special Rapporteurs Nicolas Levrat, Irene Khan and Nazila Ghanea, who deal with minority issues, freedom of opinion and expression, and freedom of religion or belief, respectively.
The experts sought the government's comments on allegations that Bengali and Muslim electors were disproportionately affected during the SIR, particularly in West Bengal, and asked how the process complies with India's obligations under international human rights law.
The letter said there were concerns over the reported removal of millions of names from electoral rolls, potentially affecting Muslims, people of Bengali descent and other minorities who could be wrongly excluded because of their historical treatment as foreigners or illegal immigrants.
It also referred to allegations that some eligible voters were excluded despite submitting valid identification and that minor spelling differences in documents were used as grounds for deleting names. The experts also raised concerns over reports that an AI-driven system was used to identify irregularities in voter data, citing possible issues related to transparency, errors and bias.
The rapporteurs further expressed concern over statements made by political leaders and government officials that, they said, could reinforce discriminatory rhetoric against Muslim, Bengali, and other minority communities.
The letter stated that while the experts were not prejudging the accuracy of the allegations, the reported actions could amount to violations of multiple human rights obligations and could constitute incitement to discrimination under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which India ratified in 1979.
The Election Commission's SIR exercise, which involved preparing electoral rolls afresh instead of updating existing rolls, was upheld by the Supreme Court in May. The court ruled that the Commission had the authority to conduct the exercise and said it was intended to ensure accurate and reliable electoral rolls for free and fair elections.
The UN experts' letter was made public after 60 days in accordance with the Special Rapporteurs' practice. The Ministry of External Affairs and the Election Commission had not responded to the concerns at the time of publication.