The Election Commission of India (ECI) says voters who receive SIR notices over unmapped records or logical discrepancies will no longer have to appear for hearings – Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will instead visit their homes to collect documents, with hearings held only in exceptional cases. The Commission has also ordered a review of ECINET and extended the Delhi SIR claims and objections deadline.

The ECI announced the changes on September 26, as part of a broader set of decisions on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. Voters would otherwise have had to appear before Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in person.

The decisions were taken at a meeting of the full Commission chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi. Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi were also present. According to the ECI, the meeting began at 3 pm and the decisions had the approval of the full Commission.

The changes follow an Indian Express investigation that reported repeated objections from Sandhu and Joshi over decisions on voter registration, changes to Form 6 and access to ECINET, and come days after the Supreme Court sought an explanation from the Commission on the basis for “logical discrepancy” notices issued during the Delhi SIR.

Under the revised procedure, BLOs will visit the homes of people who have been issued notices during SIR because their records are “unmapped” or show logical discrepancies. The BLOs will collect the required documents from the voters and upload them on the ECINET platform, after which the matter will be decided by the concerned ERO.

The decision comes amid questions over the large number of SIR notices being issued in Delhi and the procedure voters have to follow to establish their eligibility. The Delhi CEO had earlier said that more than 31 lakh notices had been generated for voters in the capital, issued to people whose names were not linked to the previous intensive revision or where the ECINET system detected “logical discrepancies”.

The Supreme Court had questioned the rationale and clarity of these notices and sought further explanation of the criteria being used.

What did the Indian Express investigation report?

An Indian Express investigation published on September 23 reported that Sandhu and Joshi had raised objections on at least 14 occasions over 10 months, concerning decisions on voter registration, deletion of names, restoration of voters, and access to electoral-roll........

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