Supreme Court to Hear Plea Over Delhi Voter Deletions

The Supreme Court of India agreed on September 17 to hear a plea on September 21 challenging the removal of 47 lakh names from Delhi's electoral rolls. The deletions occurred during a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, which removed approximately one in three voters from the total list of 1.45 crore. The Election Commission of India stated that 43.32 lakh voters had shifted or were absent, 2.82 lakh were deceased, and 1.41 lakh were enrolled in multiple locations.

Petitioners Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, allege the poll panel failed to disclose the names of 33 lakh people issued notices or the specific grounds for their deletion. The plea seeks the disclosure of algorithmic parameters used to categorize voters under logical discrepancies. Meanwhile, the Electoral Registration Officer of Assembly Constituency-40 clarified that non-inclusion in the draft roll published August 31 does not constitute a final determination of ineligibility, noting that eligible citizens can submit claims through September 30.

Reports indicate the SIR process has disproportionately affected marginalized groups. In Delhi's GB Road red-light district, over 75% of sex workers were struck off the rolls, often marked as shifted. While the government describes the SIR as a means to purify rolls of undocumented migrants, critics argue the process targets minority voters to benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party. In West Bengal, the government has already used SIR deletion data to remove approximately 3 million women from the Annapurna Bhandar welfare scheme.