Supreme Court says Delhi SIR notifications appear to be “machine generated” and mechanically issued
Voters who have received Eligibility Notice for ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) with documents for hearing at Government Boys Senior Secondary School, Rajouri Garden Extension, New Delhi on 17th September 2026. | Photo credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (September 22, 2026) said the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) notices during the Special Intensive Review (SIR) in Delhi to over 33 lakh voters due to “logical inconsistencies” or “no mapping” with previous electoral records appear to be “machine generated” without any application of mind.
“Some clarification is required. They look like mechanically issued notices. Most probably these are machine generated notices… Please examine whether any additional filters are necessary,” Justice Joymalya Bagchi, a member of a three-judge bench with Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice V. Mohana, Election Commission (EC) counsel, Senior Advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu, asked.
Justice Bagchi further asked the ECI whether the people to whom these notices were sent even knew what logical contradictions they were supposed to prove wrong.
91% back in role: lawyers
Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi, activists Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri said 91% of voters in West Bengal who appealed against the logical irregularities found against them by the EC were reinstated in the electoral roll.
“But the whole process of returning to the voter list would take years. 33 million voters out of the total 97 million are excluded from the draft list,” Mr. Bhushan said.
Chief Justice Kant said information can be obtained from voters on WhatsApp or through email. The EC could develop a mechanism to exchange information with voters online. This would relieve voters from the drudgery of physically attending the verification process.
The need for better guidance: the court
The court said Delhi SIR may need better orientation. Some of the key political figures who have been served notices include External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, current Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was present in the courtroom among others.
Speaking on behalf of the ECI, Mr. Naidu said that the deadline for submission of notification to Delhi SIR was October 29. “However, we are open to an extension as it (Delhi) is not tied to elections,” he added. Mr. Naidu assured that not a single voter would be wiped out and the notices actually gave reasons.
The petition stated that apart from more than 47 million people removed from the draft list, the Election Commission was preparing notices for 33 million people on two grounds, logical inconsistencies and mapping.
“Of the 97,53,577 voters who are listed in the Delhi SIR after the enumeration stage, 33,12,919 voters (33.96%) were issued notices after they were identified either as having no mapping (13,79,785) or due to logical discrepancies (34 and 33, respondents. Election Officer, Delhi) in violation of procedure have not published the list of voters to whom notices have been issued along with their specific background,” the petition states.
She stated that the term “logical inconsistencies” was not defined in the ECI. There were no parameters to determine the circumstances under which a voter would fall into this category, nor any document or instruction on this aspect published on the website.
As the notification phase for the Delhi SIR ended on October 29, the petition alleged that issuing vague notifications would leave thousands of voters vulnerable to an arbitrary process of potential disenfranchisement.
The court issued a notice to the ECI and sought a status report, listing the case for hearing after two weeks.
Published – 22 Sep 2026 17:02 IST