Economist Bibek Debroy died in 2024. Why did Delhi’s SIR roll issue a notice in his name in 2026?

The Delhi electoral roll lists late economist Bibek Debroy as a 70-year-old voter, despite his passing in November 2024. His record shows no mapping with previous rolls, prompting a notice for verification by the Election Commission due to detected discrepancies.

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, reported The Hindu. Debroy died in November 2024 at the age of 69.

The draft electoral roll released on August 31 lists Debroy as a 70-year-old voter in polling part 73 of the Delhi Cantonment Assembly constituency.

His name is also included in the polling-part-wise list of 33.1 lakh electors who have been issued notices during the SIR process. The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s office published the list on Friday, September 18.

The Election Commission of India has identified certain voter records for further verification based on either of 11 “logical discrepancies” detected by its software or the absence of a match with the electoral roll from the previous SIR exercise.

In such cases, notices are issued to check supporting documents for records flagged for logical discrepancies, while those marked as having “no mapping” are required to undergo verification to determine eligibility.

Debroy’s name featured in Delhi’s electoral roll for the 2025 Assembly election and was not removed during the subsequent summary revision, pre-SIR mapping exercise or enumeration process, even as deletions were made at these stages, the report noted.

His name continues to appear in the newly published draft roll, but the separate notice list has marked his electoral record as having “no mapping” with the previous SIR roll.

Debroy was a prominent economist who served as chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council from 2017. He was also a member of NITI Aayog.

Advani, Sisodia among prominent voters flagged in Delhi SIR exercise

Former deputy prime minister L K Advani and former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia are among several prominent voters whose names feature in the list of around 33 lakh electors being issued notices over discrepancies in details submitted during the SIR, according to PTI.

Advani, 98, his daughter Pratibha and daughter-in-law Geetika have received notices after their names could not be mapped to the 2002 SIR electoral roll. His son Jayant, however, completed the mapping process successfully. All four are registered voters in the New Delhi Assembly constituency.

Sisodia, along with his wife Seema and son Meer, has also been issued notices as part of the exercise.

The Election Commission has not specified a reason for the notice issued to Sisodia. According to officials, however, Meer's notice mentions a "discrepancy in his parent's name".

Seema's notice cites a "mismatch in her own name" as the reason for the action.

A senior election official said the notices in such cases were triggered by "logical discrepancies" found in information provided by electors through their enumeration forms.

Why Delhi voters are receiving SIR notices

The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s office has said notices are being sent to voters whose names could not be matched with the electoral roll from the previous SIR or whose particulars were found to contain discrepancies during the mapping process.

As part of the door-to-door verification exercise, electors were required to fill out enumeration forms between June 30 and August 17.

Of the nearly 97 lakh voters included in the draft electoral rolls, 33.13 lakh have been marked for notices over discrepancies found in their enumeration forms. So far, more than 31.63 lakh notices have been served.

A majority of the notices have been issued because corresponding records could not be found in the electoral roll prepared during the previous SIR conducted in 2002.

The CEO’s office said the notices form part of the claims and objections stage of the SIR process, which is scheduled to continue until September 30.

Voters receiving notices have been asked to submit their responses along with supporting documents to the Electoral Registration Officers of their respective Assembly constituencies by October 29.

About the Author

Garvit Bhirani is a journalist based in Gurugram. He is a Deputy Chief Content Producer at LiveMint, where he covers national and international news stories, focusing on accuracy and compelling storytelling for readers. <br><br> With a total of six years of experience in journalism, he has previously worked with Vaco Binary Semantics for Google, taking on the role of news curation lead, and reported from the field on health, education, and agriculture stories for 101reporters and News9. He has also served as a content editor for entertainment and news media organisations. <br><br> Garvit holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and mass communication from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and Gurugram University, respectively. During college days, he joined India’s only non-profit student journalism network, where he anchored daily news updates and produced his own weekly show called ‘Data Fix’. <br><br> He was selected for the YES Foundation Media for Social Change Fellowship in Delhi, the Talking Data to the Fourth Pillar residential workshop, and the VOICE Fellowship in Pune. <br><br> He holds certificates in COVID-19-verification reporting, data journalism, food & agriculture, tech policy, media literacy and countering misinformation, and tackling election disinformation courses from Thomson Foundation, IndiaSpend, The Dialogue, US Mission in India, and AFP. <br><br> He can be reached on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/garvit-bhirani">LinkedIn</a> or on <a href="https://x.com/GarvitBhirani">@garvitbhirani</a> on X

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