Voter for a decade, now, not on SIR draft rolls’: Inside a Delhi public hearing

When Naimuddin checked the Delhi draft electoral roll released in August, he found that his name and that of his wife had been marked under the “permanently shifted” category.

This was a rude shock to the Jamia Nagar resident who claimed that no booth level officer (BLO) had visited his house during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, which started in June in the Capital. He recalled submitting his enumeration form at a camp near his home in July.

“I don’t know how this happened. No BLO ever visited my house. I had submitted my enumeration form during the SIR exercise in July. I have had a driving licence since 1993. I graduated from Jamia Millia Islamia in 1999 and have been a voter for over a decade,” Naimuddin, in his late 40s, told The Indian Express at a Jan Sunwai (public hearing) organised by civil society groups in Jamia Nagar in the Okhla Assembly constituency on Sunday.

The public hearing, organised by Jan Sarokar, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), Voter Adhikar Manch and the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) at a baraat ghar in Jamia, saw around 150 voters registered at the desk to share their experiences and seek assistance in checking their electoral status.
Naimuddin was earlier advised to submit Form 6, used to register new voters, at a special camp organised by the Election Commission in Batla House, around a kilometre away. However, he was reluctant to do so, questioning why an existing voter should have to fill out a form meant for new voters. “I have been a voter for years. Why should I fill out Form 6, which is meant for new or first-time voters?” he asked.

Another voter, Anita, arrived at the hearing with her daughter and four voter ID cards. She has been anxious ever since she discovered that her husband’s name had been marked as “dead” under the absent, shifted, dead and duplicate (ASDD) category. “There are six members in my family, including my husband, in-laws and brother-in-laws. All have been voting for years. I came here only to check the status of our votes, but was told that my husband’s name had been deleted. He is a carpenter and is alive,” she said.

A volunteer subsequently found that Anita’s husband had two voter ID numbers. While one entry had been marked under the “dead” category, his name appeared in the draft roll under the second ID, of which he was reportedly unaware.

At another desk, Zakir Hussain and Nafisha Begum, residents of Joga Bai Extension, said they had been unable to fill out their forms and were subsequently marked as “untraceable” and “permanently shifted”, respectively.

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A look at numbers

The volunteer-led “audit”, which preceded the hearing, found around 100 voters had been wrongly marked for deletion despite continuing to live at their registered addresses. The exercise, conducted between October 9 and 16, covered 1,579 voters across 307 households in Batla House. It examined voters on the ASDD list, the notice list and lists of those deleted before the SIR exercise. The survey covered around 69% of the 2,296 voters on these lists in the areas surveyed.

Of the 1,009 voters checked on the ASDD and pre-SIR deletion lists, 100 were found to have been wrongly marked for removal — 99 under the ASDD category and one deleted before the SIR exercise — despite continuing to reside at their registered addresses. While 434 cases were confirmed as correctly listed, volunteers could not trace or verify the remaining 475 voters, according to the organisers.

The review also found that, among 86 wrongly marked ASDD cases in which volunteers sought information about enumeration forms, the forms had not been generated in 27 cases and remained uncollected by voters in four others.

Separately, of the 570 voters on the notice list checked by volunteers, 51 said they had never received the notices they were reportedly served. While 388 said they had received notices, 131 could not be questioned or did not respond. Among the 439 who answered the question, around 12% said they had not received a notice.

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By 5.45 pm on Sunday, 153 voters had been issued tokens at the hearing desk. Of these, 73 were on the ASDD list, 56 were on the notice list, 18 had been deleted before the SIR exercise, five had been cleared in the draft roll and one was not part of the SIR process.

A facilitation desk also helped voters fill out Form 6, along with supporting documents and self-declarations stating that they had been wrongly deleted and were not first-time voters. By 5.45 pm, volunteers had helped 73 voters complete the forms and declarations.

The organisers said the audit was undertaken to encourage public participation in electoral roll preparation, citing Election Commission of India provisions on disclosure of electoral rolls, claims and objections, and public verification.

They said they had invited the respective BLOs, the Electoral Registration Officer, the District Magistrate and Election Commission officials through the Chief Electoral Officer’s Delhi office. However, none attended the hearing.