Notices to 44% electors in Badarpur: BLOs conduct SIR hearings at polling stations, homes

Hearings underway at a voter registration centre in Badarpur. (Express photo by Devansh Mittal)

By around 2.30 pm on Monday, at Panchsheel Public School in Southeast Delhi’s Badarpur — a polling station where hearings for electors are being held amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise — Booth Level Officer (BLO) Sumit Bhati had already conducted 36 hearings. A Hindi teacher by profession, Bhati has been allocated 1,000 electors. People across the city are being served hearing notices, requiring them to verify their details to make sure their names are not deleted from the draft electoral rolls.

According to officials, notices are being issued to around 87,000 or 44% of electors in Badarpur because their details could not be linked to the 2002 SIR electoral roll, or due to anomalies found in their enumeration forms. Badarpur, therefore, has emerged as the Delhi Assembly seat with the highest percentage of electors who are being served notices, say officials.

Bhati and other BLOs are conducting the hearings in Badarpur — in a move, election officials say, is meant to spare electors a trip to the electoral office.

“If all 87,000 electors, who get notices, have to come to the electoral office, it will be inconvenient for them. So they can submit their documents to the BLO, either at their own house or at their polling station, and the BLO will upload those in the portal. But the final approval will be granted by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO),” a source in the ERO office, meanwhile, said.

The Badarpur Assembly seat had 3.44 lakh electors before the SIR exercise began. While 1.98 lakh names made it to the draft rolls published on August 31, enumeration forms of 1.46 lakh electors were marked ‘uncollectible’ and their names were struck off.

According to the Election Commission’s communication to Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer, the inquiry to ascertain whether an elector is eligible to stay on the electoral rolls has to be conducted by the ERO or the Assistant ERO. Officials in the CEO office, however, said that the ERO can use their discretion to decide on the location of the hearing . “But before finalising any venue, it is ensured that there are proper logistics,” an official said.

Of the 1,000 electors BLO Bhati is handling, 701 have made it to the draft roll. Around 240 will be served notices, mostly due to discrepancies such as a mismatch in the spelling of their names. “These issues can be easily solved … the elector just has to give us an undertaking about the correct name,” Bhati said.

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“Kuchh nahi, bas logo ko pareshan karne ka tarika hai (This is nothing but a way to trouble people),” said 57-year-old Bachan Singh, who had forgotten to fill in details from the 2002 electoral roll. “When I have been voting for all these years, why do they have to call me to waste my time like this?”

Three kilometres away, at a voter registration centre, 23-year-old Anita said: “In logo ko ek baar mein batana chahiye na, baar baar alag kaagaz ke liye bolte rehte hai (These people should have told us at once what documents are needed. Every time they would ask for different documents).” She was seen taking out photocopies from a polythene bag she was carrying.

Anita, a housewife, was issued notice as she was not able to establish a link to the 2002 electoral roll. She had brought her own education certificates as well as that of her father. The BLO carefully scanned and uploaded photos of both, then clicked a selfie with Anita holding the notice, along with an attendance sheet, certifying she had attended the hearing.

Meanwhile, officials at the local election office attributed the high number of deletions and notices to the fact that a large number of people in Badarpur live in rented accommodations. “Most of the settlements here are unauthorised colonies where labourers and people belonging to the lower-middle class live on rent. They shift frequently,” an official said, also pointing out that many of the settlements did not exist in 2002, when the last SIR exercise was carried out. “This area is at (Delhi’s) border with Faridabad. Several people have shifted their homes over the years,” the official said.

Devansh Mittal is a Correspondent at The Indian Express, based in the New Delhi City bureau. He reports on urban policy, civic governance, and infrastructure in the National Capital Region, with a growing focus on housing, land policy, transport, and the disruption economy and its social implications. Professional Background Education: He studied Political Science at Ashoka University. Core Beats: His reporting focuses on policy and governance in the National Capital Region, one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world. He covers housing and land policy, municipal governance, urban transport, and the interface between infrastructure, regulation, and everyday life in the city. Recent Notable Work His recent reporting includes in-depth examinations of urban policy and its on-ground consequences: An investigation into subvention-linked home loans that documented how homebuyers were drawn into under-construction projects through a “builder–bank” nexus, often leaving them financially exposed when delivery stalled. A detailed report on why Delhi’s land-pooling policy has remained stalled since 2007, tracing how fragmented land ownership, policy design flaws, and mistrust among stakeholders have kept one of the capital’s flagship urban reforms in limbo. A reported piece examining the collapse of an electric mobility startup and what it meant for women drivers dependent on the platform for livelihoods. Reporting Approach Devansh’s work combines on-ground reporting with analysis of government data, court records, and academic research. He regularly reports from neighbourhoods, government offices, and courtrooms to explain how decisions on housing, transport, and the disruption economy shape everyday life in the city. Contact X (Twitter): @devanshmittal_ Email: devansh.mittal@expressindia.com ... Read More

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