The Supreme Court has sought a reply from the Election Commission regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Delhi's voter list. The court has raised questions on the 'logical discrepancy' notice sent to a large number of voters and has asked the commission to explain it clearly. The court also asked how many Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have been deployed to dispose of around 33 lakh notices.
Court questions on 'logical discrepancy' notice
Hearing the petition of RTI activist Anjali Bhardwaj, a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant said that such a large number of notices issued prima facie appear to be machine generated. The court directed the Election Commission to file its reply within two weeks.
Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, said that notices have been sent to more than 33 lakh voters on the basis of trivial or unclear reasons. He gave the example that in some of the notices, the difference between the age of the voter and his parents is less than 15 years, while the 12 documents sought by the Commission do not contain information related to the age of the parents.
What did the Election Commission say?
On behalf of the Election Commission, senior advocate DS Naidu said that about 14 thousand BLOs and 1,200 EROs are working continuously. Voters have been given time till October 29 to respond and the deadline can be extended if necessary. The Commission assured the court that no voter's name would be removed from the voter list without proper reason.
Supreme Court's suggestions
The Chief Justice said that to increase voter confidence, standard answers and clear guidelines can be provided for every type of objection. Justice Bagchi suggested making BLOs available in ward offices. The Commission said that camps and WhatsApp groups are also being formed for assistance.
How many names affected in Delhi SIR?
In the draft voter list released on August 31, 97.53 lakh voters were registered, whereas before SIR there were about 1.45 crore names. About 47.56 lakh names were not included in the draft list due to absent, transferred, dead or duplicate categories.
At the same time, about 33 lakh voters are in the 'unmapped' or 'logical discrepancy' category. Of these, about 13.80 lakh could not be mapped from the old voter list of 2002, while about 19.33 lakh have been kept in the 'logical discrepancy' category.
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