Six deletion requests cleared for every voter inclusion application in Delhi SIR

An examination by The Hindu into how names of voters are being deleted from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process found that, for every application for inclusion in Delhi’s electoral roll through Form 6 during the ongoing claims and objections phase, six applications through Form 7, seeking objections to the inclusion of names or their deletion from the draft roll, have been cleared.

According to the newspaper’s analysis of constituency-wise data, only 569 Form 6 applications were disposed of between August 31 and October 4, whereas 3,209 Form 7 applications were cleared during the same five-week period.

More than two-thirds of the Form 7 applications, numbering 2,352, were disposed of in the final two weeks, while no Form 6 application was disposed of in the previous week.

The figures assume significance as 2.12 lakh Form 6 applications and 51,747 Form 7 applications had already been submitted since June 16, before the claims and objections phase began on August 31. While Form 6 is used to seek inclusion in the final SIR electoral rolls, Form 7 enables electors to object to another voter’s inclusion or seek deletion of a name.

A similar trend has emerged in West Bengal, where The Wire, citing constituency-level data submitted by the Election Commission of India to the Supreme Court, reported that applications seeking deletion from the electoral rolls were more than twice as likely to have reached an outcome as those seeking inclusion.

Meanwhile, Karnataka has witnessed protests over bulk Form 7 applications, with police registering five FIRs under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, adding to concerns over the manner in which the intensive revision is being conducted.