In Karnataka, the hearing on the SIR notification has been fixed at 12:00 noon

The copy of the hearing notice received by the voter lists the hearing time as 12:00 a.m. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

After Vinod (name changed), who is based in Delhi while his family lives in Bengaluru, learned that his entire family had received a notice for not being able to be included in the 2002 electoral roll, he went to “submit documents against the notice”, only to realize that his family’s hearing was scheduled at 12 midnight.

Unable to understand how a hearing can be scheduled at this hour, he contacted his Booth Level Officer (BLO) but his attempts were futile.

The confusion and similar cases left voters across the city scrambling to understand the process, with many complaining that they had given the correct details but received notices either because of mistakes by the BLO in preparing the proposal list, or in some cases despite no mistake.

However, in most cases people have not been able to contact their BLOs or Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) whose information is given in their EPIC details as well as enumeration forms. So people rushed to precinct offices and polling stations to find out when and where their hearings were scheduled and to pick up their notices.

While the notification list is now public, the absence of details such as the date, place and time of the hearing has made no difference to many voters, who are still forced to come in person to find out their status. In addition, the lists are still not available at polling stations and hearing locations where people are going to check their status.

The notification list that was uploaded to the CEO’s website shows the folder as empty. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Moreover, after the notification lists were published, they were removed within hours in many districts and constituencies. People didn’t get to the notification lists at all. The same happened in Shivamogga and Yelahanka constituencies, while the list for Hassan required access from officials.

Activist Vinay Sreenivas, who organizes camps under the “My Vote, My Right” initiative, said his mother received a notice citing a “logical discrepancy” due to the difference between her name in the current voter’s roll and the 2002 rolls. He said the discrepancy was just a gap in the name — for example, “Suman Rekha” in the 2002 roll and “Sumanrekha” in the current roll. There was no spelling error or mismatch between the name in the 2002 role and the current role.

A voter in Rajajinagar pointed to another such case and said the addition of ‘a’ resulted in her husband’s name being recorded differently.

The BLO told them that the error occurred in transcription from English to Kannada while digitizing the enumeration form. The couple, both over 78, questioned how they were expected to go pick up notices, show up for hearings and then figure out what documents they needed to submit. She said that even during the special camp, the Election Commission of India contacted the BLO but could not get any help.

Many voters also demanded that either the full notification in English be made available online or at least a physical copy of the notification in both Kannada and English be provided, Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer V. Anbu Kumar assured.

They pointed out that while the enumeration form had a standard format and was managed to be filled despite being only in Kannada, the notification contained various reasons and information that many voters did not understand.

Published – 07 Sep 2026 21:15 IST