‘Pehle vote gaya, phir jhuggi’: Delhi SIR ordeal

A public hearing held on Thursday by an independent commission unveiled widespread complaints about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process for updating India's electoral rolls. Witnesses from Delhi, West Bengal, Telangana, and Bihar were sworn to tell the truth before a panel of retired judges—Justices A.K. Patnaik, Rekha Sharma, and Anjana Prakash. The testimony detailed how people's names were mysteriously erased from the voter lists despite providing proper identification.

One affected resident was Maya Devi, a 58-year-old domestic worker living in a makeshift shelter near the Mayur Vihar metro station. Her name and those of her daughters vanished from the voter list even though they had been voting for decades, including in the 2025 assembly elections. Maya revealed she had repeatedly sought assistance from local officials to have her name reinstated, only to be ignored: "Pehle vote gaya, phir jhuggi gayi" ("First my vote, then my shelter").

The panel heard from Voter Adhikar Manch and Jan Sarokar, organizations advocating for voter rights. They reported that during the SIR freeze between January and June 2026, roughly 11 lakh people were removed from the voter rolls in Delhi – out of over 1.5 crore registered voters at the start of the year. The final draft released on August 31 excluded more than 47 lakh additional voters.

Former West Bengal MP Tarun Mondal testified that his name was deleted even though he fulfilled all enrolment requirements and had been petitioning authorities up to the highest levels. He questioned the logic: "How could I have been an MP if I was not a voter of India? Does that mean I am a Bangladeshi?"

The commission also examined the criteria used to challenge voter eligibility. Muslim voters in Delhi and Karnataka were found disproportionately targeted based on factors like the number of siblings and age gaps between parents and children. Voter Adhikar Manch found AI-based anomaly detection systems failed to account for local social norms such as early marriages and motherhood.

To address these systemic issues, the independent commission recommended increasing public scrutiny of the draft rolls through community hearings. They urged authorities to read the draft rolls aloud at neighborhood gatherings so residents could collectively identify and flag any errors or omissions before finalizing the electoral list.

Finally, the panel highlighted that over 60% of the 33 lakh Delhi voters who received SIR notices had been verified by Election Commission protocols that allow Booth Level Officers to visit citizens' homes to collect required documentation, sparing them the need to visit government offices. Over 19 lakh voters were flagged for logical discrepancies while nearly 14 lakh were identified as unmapped due to missing links with earlier voter lists. The final SIR electoral roll was due to be published on December 4.