Advani, Jaishankar, Rekha, Kejriwal: Why so many VIP voters got SIR notices? What triggered them - Rules explained

Former deputy prime minister LK Advani, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, former vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Election Commissioner SS Sandhu are among the many prominent figures in the list of voters in the national capital who have been issued notices for 'discrepancies' in their details furnished under Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

After the publication of draft rolls of over 97 lakh voters under the SIR, 33.13 lakh notices were being issued over "discrepancies" in details furnished by people in their enumeration forms. Most notices were issued for voter details not matching with the information in the last SIR in 2002.

In a statement issued late Sunday evening, the office of the electoral registration officer (ERO) of the New Delhi assembly constituency said Sandhu's details have been validated and his name will be included in the final electoral roll after verification of the documents submitted by him.

"The electoral entry pertaining to S S Sandhu, Election Commissioner of India, has already been validated and kept in the list for inclusion in the Final Electoral Roll of AC-38 (Delhi Cant)," the ERO said.

The list of voters issued notices has been uploaded on the website of the Delhi CEO.

Those who have already been issued notice or who are to be issued one soon include Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, ex Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, former JNU VC M Jagadesh Kumar, former Delhi LG Najeeb Jung, former NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya, SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey, former army chief Upendra Dwevedi and CBI Director Praveen Sood, officials said.

Most of the prominent voters to whom notices were issued come under the New Delhi Assembly seat.

Advani, 98, his daughter Pratibha and daughter-in-law Geetika have been issued notices after their names could not be mapped to the 2002 SIR electoral roll, while his son Jayant has cleared the mapping exercise. All four are voters in the New Delhi Assembly constituency.

Jaishankar and his wife, Kyoko Jaishankar, who are voters in the Sunehri Bagh area of the New Delhi assembly constituency, have also received notices citing "unmapped with last SIR".

Former vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar and his wife Sudesh, whose voter records carry the address of the vice president's residence, have also been served notices.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has also been issued a notice citing "unmapped with last SIR". Former Delhi deputy chief minister Sisodia, his wife Seema and their son Meer have also been issued notices. While the poll body has not cited the reason for sending a notice to Sisodia, his son Meer's notice points to a "discrepancy in his parent's name", according to officials.

The reason cited in his wife Seema's notice is "mismatch in her own name".

The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer's (CEO) office, however, maintained that system-generated notices were being issued to voters with discrepancies to correct their data in ECINET and stressed that "there is no existential crisis as is being brought out in social and print".

The Delhi CEO Office said the issuance of a notice does not mean that the voter's name will be deleted from the electoral rolls.

A notice has been issued against the name of late economist and Padma awardee Bibek Debroy in Delhi’s draft electoral roll after his record was found to have no mapping with the previous Special Intensive Revision (SIR) roll, news agencies reported. Debroy died in November 2024.

Why wave of notices to VIP voters?

The wave of notices served to electors, including VIPs. under the special intensive revision (SIR) stems from a key change made to SIR instructions by the Election Commission. The change was undertaken after SIR Phase I in Bihar in June 2025.

During the SIR in Bihar, the rules required electors to attach documents from a list of 12 to prove their eligibility for inclusion in the roll.

However, EC revised the rules in Phase 2, covering 12 states/UTs, doing away with the requirement to submit documents.

The modifications made in October 2025 to the process were based on learnings from phase 1 of SIR in Bihar, the poll panel had said then.

In a notice issued to the Chief Electoral Officers of all 12 States, the ECI said no documents were to be collected from electors during the Enumeration Phase. This was being done as it had been found in Bihar that a majority of people could be traced to the electoral rolls of the previous SIR, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had said.

The poll panel instead decided to map the electors with the electoral roll from last SIR.

The mapping uses built-in algorithms to flag logical discrepancies between the last roll and the enumeration forms, on the basis of which notices are automatically issued. The logical discrepancy software will not distinguish between a common and a VIP name, according to a report by The Times of India.

What did Delhi CEO say?

The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Delhi, on Sunday clarified that notices issued to certain electors during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls do not mean that their names will be deleted, while stating that no name can be removed without giving the elector an opportunity of being heard and passing a proper, speaking and appealable order.

The CEO office said the draft electoral roll was prepared on the basis of information provided by electors in Enumeration Forms submitted to Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and was published on August 31. The draft roll has been made available on the CEO Delhi website, offices of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), as well as at designated polling station locations.

The Election Commission of India had announced the SIR in Delhi on May 14 with the objective of ensuring that "No eligible citizen is left out while no ineligible person is included in the Electoral Roll."

According to the CEO's latest press note, electors appearing in the draft roll have been categorised into those who have mapped or linked themselves, or their progeny entries, with electoral rolls of the last intensive revision and those who could not establish such a link.

Among them, notices are being issued to electors who could not be linked with the electoral roll of the last intensive revision and those having "logical discrepancies" in their linking.

The CEO office said the list of electors to whom notices have been issued is available on the websites of the CEO Delhi, District Election Officers and Voter Centres.

"All stakeholders are hereby informed that issue of Notice does not mean that their names will be deleted from the electoral rolls of NCT of Delhi," the CEO office said, adding that system-generated notices are being issued to correct data in ECINET.

"No name can be deleted without giving an opportunity of being heard and a proper speaking and appealable order," it said.

The office further said there was "no existential crisis" arising from the notices, as being reported in social and print media.

What next?

Electors receiving notices can submit their replies and requisite documents to the concerned ERO or BLO. The CEO office said the list of documents prescribed by the ECI is "only Indicative not exhaustive" and that EROs, as statutory authorities, will take a final decision on a case-to-case basis after considering available documents and the BLO's report.

The disposal of notices is scheduled to be completed by October 29, following which the names of such electors will be included in the final electoral roll to be published on November 4.

The CEO Delhi's daily bulletin on SIR said a total of 84,263 Form-6 applications were received across Delhi between August 31 and September 19, in addition to 2,12,400 applications received up to August 30.

Form-6 is used for inclusion of names in the electoral roll.

The bulletin said 174 Form-6A, 1396 Form-7 and 29,705 Form-8 applications were also received between August 31 and September 19.

The CEO office advised citizens to check their names in the draft electoral roll and submit Form-6 along with the prescribed declaration and supporting documents if their names are missing.

New applicants who attain the age of 18 years on or before October 1, 2026, can also apply through Form-6. Form-8 is to be used for shifting of address or modification of existing entries.

The claims and objections received up to September 30 are to be disposed of by October 29. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on November 4, according to the latest CEO Delhi bulletin.

Special camps have also been planned on September 20 and 27 at all polling station locations, where citizens can avail electoral services.