No name will be deleted without notice, says ECI on Bihar SIR

The Election Commission of India (ECI) assured the Supreme Court on Saturday (August 9, 2025) that deletion of voters’ names in the Bihar draft electoral roll, published on August 1 as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, would be done only after issuing prior notice indicating the grounds for the action.

The ECI was responding to an application filed by Association for Democratic Reforms, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi, in court to direct the poll body to provide individual details of the approximately 65 lakh names deleted from the draft electoral roll. The affidavit did not directly address this point raised by the NGO.

Instead, the commission said its policy would be adhere to the principles of natural justice by giving voters facing deletion a “reasonable opportunity of being heard and furnishing relevant documents”. The subsequent order by the competent authority would be “a reasoned and speaking” one.

“These safeguards are further reinforced by a robust two-tier appeal mechanism prescribed under the relevant rules, thereby ensuring that every elector has adequate recourse against any adverse action,” the EC said in an additional affidavit.

Booth-level lists have been provided to political parties, the EC assured. “To facilitate thorough scrutiny of the draft roll from August 1 to September 1, printed and digital copies of draft rolls have been made available to political parties, and online facility for the public at large,” the affidavit said.

The poll body said 2.5 lakh volunteers, mostly Bihar government officials, have been deployed to assist eligible voters obtain requisite documents from the various State departments to avoid exclusion from the final electoral roll.

“Accordingly, even in cases in which any vulnerable elector does not presently possess any document, he/she would be facilitated in the process of obtaining such documents. The Commission is taking every possible step to ensure that eligible elector is not excluded from the electoral roll,” the affidavit updated about the ongoing claims and objections process following the publication of the draft roll.

The poll body said advertisements in Hindi were issued setting out the timeframe and the manner for filing applications and participating in the claims and objections period so as to secure inclusion of the names of eligible voters before the final publication of the Bihar electoral rolls.

The EC said it has completed the first stage of the SIR, which has yielded “substantial progress”.

Repeated house visits were made by the 77,895 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to collect enumeration forms to ensure no voter was left behind in Bihar. Provisions were made for any of the over 1.6 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs), appointed by “all major political parties”, to submit up to 50 enumeration forms in a day, the EC said.

Special urban camps in 261 urban local bodies to attract the attention of urban voters and Hindi advertisements in 246 newspapers were issued and Chief Electoral Officers of all States and Union Territories were asked to facilitate the online/physical filing of forms to make sure that no temporary migrant from Bihar was left out of the roll. Young electors who attained the qualifying age as on October 1 are being wooed to enrol in special campaigns scheduled for the claims and objections period.