New Delhi, Oct 15 (PTI) A panel of retired judges of the Supreme Court and high courts on Thursday heard accounts of people whose names have been deleted from electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise undertaken across the country.
The panel, comprising retired Supreme Court judge A K Patnaik, retired Delhi High Court judge Rekha Sharma and retired Patna High Court judge Anjana Prakash, attended a public hearing of the Independent Commission on SIR constituted by the Lawyers Association for Constitution (LAFC). Actor and activist Prakash Raj also witnessed the hearing.
Former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B Lokur, who was heading the commission, could not attend the first public hearing of the panel.
The LAFC had earlier set up a five-member commission, headed by Justice Lokur, to examine the constitutional and statutory validity, methodology and overall impact of the Election Commission’s electoral roll revision exercise.
The hearing, held at Jawahar Bhawan in the national capital, heard accounts from people affected by the exercise in West Bengal, Delhi, Telangana, Bihar and Rajasthan.
The panel first heard presentations on the impact of the SIR exercise on electoral rolls in various states before listening to testimonies from affected people, who took an oath in the name of God.
Among those who deposed before the commission was former West Bengal MP Tarun Mondal, whose name was deleted from the electoral roll following the revision.
“My name was struck out from the electoral list of West Bengal in this SIR process. I did apply and enrolment form was filled up both by me and the entire family, my wife, and finally after their adjudications by the ELOs, etc. they disqualified me,” he said.
Mondal, a doctor and resident of the South Howrah assembly constituency, said his name had previously been registered under Booth Number 279 but was removed during the latest revision.
A resident of Delhi’s Mangolpuri area, Kanta Prasad, told the panel that his name was deleted after the Election Commission declared him dead.
“My name was deleted after they declared me dead. I was not provided any SIR form by the Election Commission. My name was on an earlier voter list, even though I voted in the last assembly elections, but they removed my name this time,” he said.
The commission was also briefed through presentations by its coordinators on voter deletions across different states and the difficulties faced by affected people.
Initiated in 2025, approximately 13 crore voters have been removed from India’s electoral rolls through the SIR process in India.
Delhi’s draft electoral roll published on August 31 revealed that over 47 lakh voters out of a total of 1.45 crore (nearly one-third of the city’s electorate) were removed from the draft rolls.
More than 2.04 crore voters were removed from Uttar Pradesh’s electoral rolls following the SIR exercise, with deletions heavily concentrated in urban centres. PTI SKM SKM KSS
KSS
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