New Delhi: In a major relief for voters in Delhi, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday extended the period for filing claims and objections under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the national capital by a month, till October 30. According to the ECI, the final voter list will now be published on December 4.
Under the revised schedule, the deadline for disposal of notices and claims and objections has also been extended by a month, till November 30.
As per the previous schedule, voters were asked to submit claims and objections from August 31 to September 30. Officials were subsequently directed to complete the disposal of notices and claims and objections by October 30. The final electoral roll was scheduled to be published on November 4.
The revised schedule follows a request from the Delhi chief electoral officer (CEO), made in a letter dated September 23, seeking a revision of the SIR schedule for the national capital.
The poll body announced the extension amid criticism over notices being served to eligible voters, including prominent figures, in the national capital. Following the SIR exercise, the Election Commission had listed over 97 lakh voters in the draft electoral roll. According to official data, 47.7 lakh voters were excluded from the draft list.
Notices were issued to 33.13 lakh voters over “discrepancies” in the details furnished in their enumeration forms, with a large number of cases involving data that could not be matched with the electoral roll prepared during the previous SIR in 2002.
Several prominent voters, including former deputy prime minister L K Advani, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, former vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, had also received notices from the Delhi poll body.
However, officials said the details of most of them had been validated through field verification and that their names had been reserved for inclusion in the final roll.
Earlier, the Delhi CEO’s office had reiterated that the issuance of a notice did not mean that an elector’s name would be deleted from the electoral roll.
Voters who receive notices can submit their replies and requisite supporting documents to the concerned Electoral Registration Officer or Booth Level Officer, the CEO’s office said.
Poll officials have maintained that no name can be deleted without following due process, including allowing the concerned elector to be heard and passing a proper, speaking and appealable order.
(With inputs from PTI)
