दिल्ली के मंगोलपुरि में SIR ऑडिट में आधिकारिक रिकॉर्ड और वास्तविकता में बेमेल

People's Tribunal on Delhi SIR: Audit Finds 'Official Record Doesn't Correspond with Ground Reality'

New Delhi: In an open letter to the Election Commission of India, a people's tribunal constituted for an audit of the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in Delhi, has raised several concerns regarding it. In a public audit conducted in just Y Block of Delhi's Mangolpuri, they said, "hundreds of cases" were found where "the official electoral record did not correspond with the reality on the ground".

Alleging large scale discrepancies, such as missing names and wrong classification in the ASDD list, the tribunal demanded that the electoral roll should be publicly read and verified, proceedings should be recorded, and timely remedial action should be taken. The entire exercise, they demanded, should be "decentralised, time-bound, transparent and effective".

Read the full letter:

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA - FROM THE PEOPLES TRIBUNAL CONSTITUTED FOR THE SIR PUBLIC AUDIT AT MANGOLPURI, DELHI

On 5 September 2026, we sat as members of a People’s Tribunal at a four-hour public hearing in Y Block, Mangolpuri, to hear the experiences of residents affected by the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Delhi.

The scale of exclusion in Y Block was itself striking. Of the 9,838 electors on the January 2025 electoral roll, only 5,639 (57.3%) appeared in the Draft SIR Roll; 2,781 (28.3%) were placed on the ASDD list; and 1,328 (13.5%) appeared in neither list, with no reason recorded. We subsequently learnt that 1,914 of the 5,639 electors retained in the Draft Roll had also been issued notices.

Prior to the hearing, citizen volunteers had conducted a door-to-door verification exercise covering 1,448 of the 1,516 houses across all eight polling booths in Y Block. That exercise, together with the testimonies heard at the public hearing, revealed hundreds of cases in this one neighbourhood where the official electoral record did not correspond with the reality on the ground. More than 450 persons were found living at their addresses despite being placed on the ASDD list, while more than 500 persons were found present and still resident but appeared in neither list. We heard from voters classified as absent, shifted or dead, as well as voters whose names had simply disappeared from both lists. Many had voted in the 2025 Delhi Assembly election and in several earlier elections. They produced EPIC cards, Aadhaar cards, ration cards, PAN cards and other documents, and their residence was corroborated by family members and neighbours.

All eight Booth Level Officers were invited to attend the hearing. Unfortunately, none attended or responded. This is despite the current ECI manual (2023) in its Paragraph 11.2.4(vi) and Paragraph 24.1.2 requiring the BLO to hold ward Sabha level meetings to read aloud each part of the electoral roll and initiate corrections on the spot.

Earlier orders of the commission detail this process and link the corrections to the Representation of People's Act, 1950. None of this essential process of verification by the people, appears to have been carried out during the SIR. The Tribunal thereafter sent its findings to the Election Commission of India and sought a meeting with the Commission. The Tribunal received no response.

We therefore release this as an open letter, and urge the Election Commission of India to:

1) Immediately order daily Ward Sabhas in Mangolpuri at which the Draft SIR Roll, ASDD list and notices issued are shared in the presence of the public. On the basis of public feedback, the ERO must take immediate, time-bound steps to enrol eligible voters, remove ineligible entries and correct errors.

2) Mandate similar Gaon Sabha and Ward and booth level Sabha exercises across the country. In line with the manual and earlier orders, the electoral roll should be publicly read and verified, claims and objections should be capable of being filed during the meeting itself, the proceedings should be recorded and forwarded to the ERO, and remedial action should follow. All changes made through the SIR should be confirmed only after this process is completed.

3) Fix accountability on individual officers responsible for wrongful deletion of voters.

4) Revisit the SIR process commenced in 2025. The duty and responsibility to enumerate electors must remain with the Election Commission, and no eligible voter should be excluded merely because an SIR enumeration form was not submitted.

5) Remove the requirement of mapping voters to the 2002 electoral roll. It serves no rational, useful or valid purpose and has caused unnecessary difficulty and distress.

6) Recognise village- and ward-level public hearings as an integral part of electoral-roll verification and revision. The Election Commission should issue detailed procedures to ensure that these exercises are decentralised, time-bound, transparent and effective.

7) Correct wrongful deletions at the instance of the BLO and ERO. A voter wrongly deleted because of an official error should not be forced to apply through Form 6 as a new voter, or to make declarations inconsistent with the fact that they were already enrolled.

The electoral roll is not merely a database maintained by the State. It is the record through which citizens exercise their right to vote. Its accuracy must therefore be tested not only against official files and databases, but against the people whose lives those records purport to describe.

The voter list belongs to the people. Let the people verify it.

Signed:

- Justice Madan B. Lokur, Former Judge, Supreme Court of India

- Syeda Hameed, Writer and Former Member, Planning Commission

- Bezwada Wilson, Founder, Safai Karamchari Andolan

- Annie Raja, National Federation of Indian Women

- Nisha Siddhu, National Federation of Indian Women

- Subhash Bhatnagar, Former Member, Delhi Board of Building and Other Construction Workers

- Maj. Gen. Anil Verma (Retd.), Association for Democratic Reforms

- Tara Rao, Founder, Edellu Karnataka

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