Advani, Jaishankar, Rekha, Kejriwal: Why so many VIP voters got SIR notice? What Triggered Them – Rules Explained | Today’s news
Former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Former Vice President Jagdeep DhankharDelhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Election Commissioner SS Sandhu are among the many prominent figures on the capital’s electoral rolls who have been issued notices for “irregularities” in their details listed under Special Intensive Review (SIR) exercise.
After the draft lists of more than 97 million voters were published under the SIR, 33.13 million notices were issued due to “discrepancies” in the details provided by people in their enumeration forms. Most of the notices were issued for voter data that did not match the information in the last SIR in 2002.
Read also | Delhi SIR: Will your name be deleted after notification? explains the CEO
In a statement issued late Sunday evening, the authority electoral registration officer (ERO) of New Delhi constituency said that Sandhu’s details have been verified and his name will be included in the final voter list after verification of the documents submitted by him.
“The electoral record relating to SS Sandhu, Election Commissioner of India has already been confirmed and deposited in the list for inclusion in the final voter list of AC-38 (Delhi Cant),” the ERO said.
The list of electors issued notices has been uploaded on the website of the Delhi Chief Executive.
Those who have already been dismissed or will soon be dismissed include Foreign Minister Vikram Misriformer Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, former JNU VC M Jagadesh Kumar, former Delhi LG Najeeb Jung, former NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya, SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey, former Army Chief Upendra Dwevedi and CBI Director Praveen Sood, officials said.
Most of the prominent electorates to whom notices have been issued fall under the assembly seat of New Delhi.
Advani, 98, his daughter Pratibha and daughter-in-law Geetika received the notice after their names could not be included in the 2002 SIR voter list, while his son Jayant allowed the mapping. All four are voters in New Delhi Assembly Constituency.
Jaishankar and his wife, Kyoko Jaishankar, who are voters in the Sunehri Bagh area of the New Delhi assembly constituency, have also received notices citing “not mapped with latest SIR”.
Former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and his wife Sudesh, whose electoral records include the Vice President’s residential address, were also served with notices.
Foreign Minister Vikram Misri also received a notification referring to “not mapped with latest SIR”. Former Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Sisodiahis wife Seema and their son Meer also received notices. While the probing body did not give a reason for sending the notice to Sisodia, his son Meer’s notice, according to officials, points to a “discrepancy in his parent’s name”.
Read also | Bibek Debroy died in 2024. Why did Delhi’s SIR roll issue notification in his name now?
The reason given in his wife Seema’s notice is “disagreement in her own name”.
However, the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Delhi insisted that system-generated notices were being sent to voters with irregularities to correct their data in ECINET, stressing that “there is no existential crisis as reported on social media and the press”.
The Delhi CEO’s office said the issuance of the notification does not mean that the voter’s name will be deleted from the electoral rolls.
A notice was issued in the name of the late economist a Padma Awardee Bibek Debroy in Delhi’s draft voter list after it was found that its entry has no mapping with the previous Special Intensive Review (SIR) list, news agencies reported. Debroy died in November 2024.
Why the wave of alerts to VIP voters?
The wave of announcements served voters, including VIPs. under Special Intensive Review (SIR) follows a key change in the SIR guidelines made by the Election Commission. The change was made after SIR Phase I in Bihar in June 2025.
During Bihar’s SIR, the rules required voters to attach 12 list documents to prove their eligibility for inclusion in the list.
However, the EC revised the rules in phase 2, covering 12 states/UTs, removing the requirement to submit documents.
The process modifications made in October 2025 were based on the findings from Bihar’s Phase 1 SIR, the survey panel said at the time.
In a notification issued to the Chief Electoral Officers of all 12 states, the ECI said that no documents will be collected from voters during the counting phase. This was done because in Bihar it was found that most people could be traced to the electoral rolls of the previous SIR, Chief Election Commissioner said Gyanesh Kumar.
The Electoral Panel instead decided to map voters using the voter list from the last SIR.
Mapping uses built-in algorithms to flag logical inconsistencies between the last roll and the enumeration forms, based on which alerts are automatically issued. According to a report by The Times of India, the logical discrepancy software will not distinguish between a regular name and a VIP name.
What did the CEO of Delhi say?
The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Delhi, on Sunday clarified that the notices issued to certain voters during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Electoral Rolls do not mean that their names will be deleted, while saying that no name can be deleted without giving the voter an opportunity to be heard and pass a proper, eloquent and appealable order.
The CEO’s office said the draft voter list was prepared based on the information provided by voters in the census forms submitted to the booth level officers (BLOs) and was released on August 31. The draft list has been made available on the website of CEO Delhi, offices of Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AERO) and also at designated polling stations.
The Election Commission of India announced the SIR in Delhi on 14 May to ensure that “no eligible citizen is left out while no ineligible person is included in the electoral roll”.
According to the Director General’s latest press release, voters listed on the proposal list were categorized as those who mapped or linked themselves or their descendants’ records to the last intensive revision electoral rolls, and those who could not make such a link.
Among them, notices are issued for voters who could not be linked to the electoral roll of the last intensive revision and for those who have “logical inconsistencies” in their linkage.
The CEO’s office said that the list of voters who have been issued notices is available on the websites of the Delhi CEO, District Election Officers and Polling Centres.
“All the concerned parties are hereby informed that the issuance of the Notice does not mean that their names will be deleted from the electoral rolls of NCT of Delhi,” the office of the director general said, adding that system-generated notices are being issued to correct the data in ECINET.
“No name shall be struck off without being given an opportunity of hearing and proper representation and an appealable order,” it said.
The authority further said that there was “no existential crisis” from the announcement, as reported in social and print media.
what next
Voters who receive the notification can submit their answers and required documents to the relevant ERO or BLO. The Office of the Director General said that the list of documents prescribed by the ECI is “indicative only and not exhaustive” and that EROs, as statutory bodies, will take the final decision on a case-by-case basis after considering the available documents and the BLO report.
The disposal of notices is to be completed by October 29, after which the names of these voters will be included in the final list of voters to be published on November 4.
The Delhi Director General’s daily bulletin on SIR said a total of 84,263 Form 6 applications were received in Delhi between August 31 and September 19, apart from 2,12,400 applications received till August 30.
Form-6 is used for including names in electoral roll.
The bulletin said that 174 Form-6A, 1,396 Form-7 and 29,705 Form-8 applications were also received between August 31 and September 19.
The CEO’s office has advised citizens to check their names in the draft voters’ list and submit Form 6 along with the prescribed declaration and supporting documents if their names are missing.
New applicants who will attain the age of 18 on or before October 1, 2026 can also apply through Form 6. Form-8 is used for moving address or amending existing records.
Read also | Delhi SIR Proposals: Why almost 33% voters deleted
Complaints and objections received by September 30 should be processed by October 29. The final list of voters is expected to be published on November 4, according to the latest Bulletin of the Director General of Delhi.
Special camps are also planned for September 20 and 27 in all polling stations where citizens can use the polling services.
