SIR draft rolls see over 13 cr deletions so far, Delhi leads with 33% left out

Why in the News

Over 13 crore names have been deleted from draft electoral rolls across 30 States and Union Territories under the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Delhi’s draft roll records a cut of 32.8 per cent and Maharashtra’s a cut of 21.1 per cent. The revision began with Bihar in June 2025 and has since moved through phases, the third of which covers 16 States and three Union Territories. The tension is that a deletion at the draft stage reverses the burden of proof, since a person already on the roll must now apply afresh to be restored within a one month window. Almost a third of Delhi’s electors were removed under a single composite head covering absence, shifting and unstated reasons.

What is the Special Intensive Revision?

1. It is a house to house re-verification of the roll: Booth level officers distribute and collect enumeration forms from every existing elector rather than processing only new claims.
2. Non-return of the form leads to deletion: An elector whose enumeration form is not received is left out of the draft roll.
3. It is run in phases across States: The exercise started in Bihar and has been extended in successive rounds to the rest of the country.
4. The draft roll is not the final roll: Claims and objections follow publication, and the final roll issues after they are disposed of.

What do the deletion numbers actually show?

1. The all-India draft deletion crosses 13 crore: The figure covers 30 States and Union Territories where draft rolls have been published.
2. The third phase alone accounts for 6.15 crore: Draft rolls have been published in 17 of the units in that phase.
3. Delhi records the largest proportionate cut: Its electors fell from 1.45 crore before the revision to 97.53 lakh, a drop of 47.56 lakh.
4. Maharashtra lost about 2.07 crore electors: Its roll fell from 9.78 crore to 7.71 crore.
5. Three other units cross 20 per cent: Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu at 29.6 per cent, Telangana at 21.7 per cent, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at 20.6 per cent.
6. Two units are yet to begin: Enumeration is scheduled to start in Nagaland and Tripura over the next two months.

What reasons are recorded for the deletions?

1. Delhi’s largest head is absent, shifted or others: It covers 43.32 lakh electors, or 29.86 per cent of the pre-revision roll.
2. Deceased electors are a small share: They number 2.82 lakh in Delhi, or 1.95 per cent, against 3.56 per cent in Maharashtra.
3. Duplicate enrolment is smaller still: 1.41 lakh Delhi electors, or 0.98 per cent, were found enrolled at multiple places, against 1.81 per cent in Maharashtra.
4. Maharashtra’s composite head is 15.78 per cent: Electors permanently shifted, absent or classed as others make up that share of its deletions.
5. The composite head is doing most of the work: In both States the single largest reason groups movement, absence and unstated causes into one number.

Why does the official explanation for Delhi not settle the question?

1. Migration is the stated reason: The stated reason for the highest deletion share is the floating population of the National Capital, where people arrive for work and return to their home States.
2. The same head also covers electors simply not traced: Booth level officers recorded electors whose enumeration forms were not returned, who were not found in existence, or who did not submit by the cut off date.
3. Refusal to register sits in the same bucket: An elector unwilling to register for any reason is recorded under the identical head as one who has moved away.
4. Four different situations produce one figure: Migration, an untraced record, non-submission and refusal cannot be separated from the published number.

How is a deleted elector supposed to get back on the roll?

1. The route is Form 6 with a declaration: An aggrieved person files it with the prescribed declaration form and supporting documents.
2. The Delhi window runs one month: Claims may be filed between 31 August and 30 September.
3. Disposal runs to late October: Claims and objections are examined and disposed of till 29 October, and the final roll is due on 4 November.
4. The exclusion lists are published for inspection: Booth wise lists of absent, shifted, dead and duplicate electors are displayed at registration offices and polling stations, and carried on the Chief Electoral Officer’s website.
5. Multiple enrolment is resolved by retention at one place: An elector found on more than one roll is kept on a single one rather than removed from all.

Challenges to the Special Intensive Revision

1. The burden of proof shifts onto the elector: A person deleted at the draft stage must file a fresh claim to be restored, so an existing entitlement becomes a new application. Eg. The Bihar revision in 2025 removed about 65 lakh names at the draft stage and left restoration to individual claims.
   The Fix: Require the booth level officer to record and serve an individual written reason on the elector before a name is dropped from the draft roll.
2. Migrant workers are structurally the most exposed: An elector away from the registered address during enumeration is marked absent whether the move is seasonal or permanent. Eg. Construction and seasonal agricultural workers are typically away from their home constituency for several months of the year.
   The Fix: Extend the enumeration window in constituencies with high recorded out-migration and accept the form by post from any location.
3. Booth level officers carry an unmanageable load: One officer covers over a thousand electors in a short window while continuing with a full time job elsewhere. Eg. Booth level officers are usually school teachers or anganwadi workers performing the duty alongside their regular work.
   The Fix: Appoint dedicated temporary enumerators for the revision and pay them against verified forms rather than against booths covered.
4. Documentary requirements exclude the poorest first: Restoration depends on supporting documents that a person without stable residence or records cannot produce. Eg. A large share of the population holds no birth certificate, which document lists for such exercises treat as primary proof of eligibility.
   The Fix: Accept the existing elector photo identity card with a self declaration at the claims stage, and verify after inclusion rather than before it.
5. The published data cannot be audited: Merging distinct causes into one head means the accuracy of the exercise cannot be tested from what is released. Eg. No State wise account is published of how many deleted electors are subsequently restored through claims.
   The Fix: Publish cause wise and outcome wise figures for every revision, including restorations, alongside the final roll.

Conclusion

This is the largest single reduction of India’s electoral roll on record, and a draft roll cannot show whether it was accurate. Whether ineligible entries or eligible electors were removed depends on how many of those left out come back through the claims process. The unresolved position is that the exercise treats absence during a short enumeration window as evidence of ineligibility, in a country where seasonal movement of labour is ordinary. The marker to watch is the gap between draft and final rolls in the two largest affected units, since that difference is the only available measure of how much of the deletion was error.

Back2Basics: Electoral roll revision under the Representation of the People Act, 1950

1. Governing provision: Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 provides for the preparation and revision of electoral rolls by the Electoral Registration Officer.
2. Two forms of revision: A summary revision updates an existing roll through claims and objections, and an intensive revision re-prepares it through house to house enumeration.
3. Qualifying dates: A person must be 18 years of age on 1 January of the year of revision, with three additional qualifying dates of 1 April, 1 July and 1 October introduced in 2021.
4. The statutory forms: Form 6 seeks inclusion of a name, Form 7 objects to an inclusion or seeks a deletion, and Form 8 corrects details in an existing entry.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2017] For election to the Lok Sabha, a nomination paper can be filed by (a) Anyone residing in India. (b) A resident of the constituency from which the election is to be contested. (c) Any citizen of India whose name appears in the electoral roll of a constituency. (d) GI any citizen of India. ANSWER: (c)”