NEW DELHI: The large number of notices served to electors under the special intensive revision (SIR) largely stem from a key change made to SIR instructions by the Election Commission, based on its experience during SIR Phase I in Bihar. During SIR in Bihar, the rules required electors to attach documents proving their eligibility to be included in the roll, over a dozen documents were listed as acceptable proof of birth, citizenship and residence, at the enumeration stage itself.However following the uproar over the inconvenience caused to electors who may not have had these documents and thus faced exclusion, the EC revised the rules in Phase 2 covering 12 states/UTs, doing away with the requirement to submit documents with the enumeration form (EF) and instead decided to map the electors with the electoral roll from last SIR. The mapping works with inbuilt algorithms to flag logical discrepancies between the last roll and the enumeration forms, based on which notices are automatically issued.“The logical discrepancy detecting software is agnostic and does not distinguish between a VIP and a common man. The fact that election commissioner. S S Sandhu also got a notice due a discrepancy, where his name was mentioned as S S Sandhu in one place and as Sukhbir Singh Sandhu in another, proves this,” an EC functionary pointed out.“The high number of notices seems to unique to urban centres like Delhi, where the electors may have been a little casual while filling up the EF. Also, the BLOs could have been more meticulous in checking forms at the enumeration stage, as this could have cut down the discrepancies that led to the notices,” said an EC official.“If anyone does not return the EF despite three visits of the booth level officer (BLO) to his address and checking by booth level agent (BLA) of political parties, he is either absent, shifted, dead or duplicate elector and his name is not there in draft roll. If the received EF are incomplete or gives incorrect information, notices are issued.The official added that notices rarely lead to electors’ exclusion and are resolved the moment the elector presents the proof correcting the discrepancy.
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“No elector is excluded without a hearing, which must be followed by a speaking order, which can, after the final roll be published, be challenged first before the district election officer and then the chief electoral officer,” said an EC official.“Besides, the option of being added back to the electoral roll remains open in perpetuity. Anyone whose name is left out can always fill up Form 6, along with the declaration, on his mobile to get back into the electoral roll,” the official added.Also read: Congress calls SIR ‘Shah Instigated Removal’, flags large-scale voter deletions