ECI Directs CEOs Not to Summon Elderly Voters for Physical Verifications, Time-Limit for SIR in UP Extended Again
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 30: Amid outrage among a section of the electorate over elderly and ailing voters being summoned for hearings under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed officials not to call such electors — particularly those aged 85 years and above — for physical hearings, and if necessary perform the verifications through phones.
In a notification issued on Monday, the Additional Chief Electoral Officer asked all District Magistrates to ensure that electors aged 85 years and above, as well as those ailing and persons with disabilities, were not required to appear in person. If notices have already been issued, officials have been instructed to contact the electors over the phone and carry out the verification at their residences.
Hearings for SIR began in West Bengal on December 27. Notices sent to a large number of elderly persons as well as persons with disabilities, had created anguish among the people. Earlier this week, the ECI issued fresh instructions to district election officials (DEOs) in the State not to summon for hearings those who have been identified as ‘unmapped’ but whose names or ancestral connections were present in the 2002 voter list.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday questioned why booth-level agents (BLAs) were not allowed during the SIR hearing process. Protests erupted in different parts of the State over the demand to allow BLAs at the hearing centres. On Monday, the hearing was halted in Hooghly district’s Chinsurah after Trinamool Congress MLA Asit Majumdar objected to the exclusion of BLAs during the process.
Addressing a public gathering in Bankura, Ms Banerjee said the SIR was a huge “scam” being conducted with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). “They have allegedly used AI to delete 54 lakh names, falsely attributing these actions to Electoral Registration Officers (EROs). The ERO association has sent letters saying they did not carry out this work,” she said. Ms Banerjee threatened to gherao the Election Commission office in Delhi if the names of legitimate voters were deleted during SIR in the State.
In Uttar Pradesh, the ECI again on Tuesday revised the SIR schedule extending the time limit for the publication of the draft electoral rolls by one week to January 6. The draft rolls were earlier scheduled to be published on Wednesday and the final electoral rolls on February 28 which has also been extended till March 6, 2026.
The claims and objections from voters will be invited from January 6 to February 6, while the notice stage, disposal of claims and objections, and decisions on enumeration forms will continue from January 6 to February 27, after which the final electoral roll will be published on March 6. The SIR process in UP began on November 4.
Earlier this month, the ECI had extended the schedule by 15 days, after which the draft rolls were to be published on December 31. Before that, on November 30, the ECI had extended the process in 12 States and Union Territories by a week.
The move came amid widespread reports of Booth Level Officers (BLO) being under severe stress, with some alleged cases of suicide being reported. The draft electoral roll is expected to contain around 12.55 crore voters, with about 2.89 crore names deleted from the pre-SIR list for reasons such as death, change of residence or duplication due to enrolment elsewhere, officials said.
The officials added that more than one crore voters in the draft list fall under the “unmapped” category and would be required to submit documents prescribed by the Election Commission to retain their names in the final roll. The ECI had announced the second phase of SIR covering 12 States and UTs and 51 crore voters on October 27.
The States included poll-bound Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Puducherry and Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar islands, Gujarat and Lakshwadweep. The Phase 1 had been conducted in Bihar, which had led to the deletion of more than 68 lakh names from the electoral rolls.
