The notices form part of a large verification exercise following publication of Delhi’s draft electoral roll on August 31. Election authorities have identified about 33.13 lakh electors for notices because their enumeration-form details could not be mapped to the 2002 intensive revision roll or showed what officials describe as logical discrepancies. More than 31.63 lakh notices had been served by the weekend, making the scrutiny one of the largest stages of the exercise across the capital so far.
The office of Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer has stressed that receipt of a notice does not mean an elector’s name will be removed. It said the notices are system-generated and are intended to enable correction of data in the Election Commission’s ECINET system. No deletion can take place without giving the elector an opportunity to be heard and issuing a reasoned, appealable order, the office said.
Advani, 98, his daughter Pratibha Advani and daughter-in-law Geetika Advani were issued notices because their present entries could not be mapped to the 2002 SIR roll, officials said. His son Jayant Advani cleared the mapping process. The family members are registered in the New Delhi Assembly constituency.
Jaishankar and his wife, Kyoko Jaishankar, have also been categorised as “unmapped with last SIR”. They are registered voters in the Sunehri Bagh area of the New Delhi constituency. Dhankhar and his wife Sudesh, whose electoral records carry the address of the Vice-President’s residence, have also been served notices.
Sandhu’s case involves a name mismatch. Officials said his enumeration form carries the name Dr S S Sandhu while the electoral roll records him as Sukhbir Singh Sandhu. His son Damanbir was also served a notice over a mismatch concerning a parent’s name. The Electoral Registration Officer has since verified Sandhu’s documents and validated his entry for inclusion in the final roll.
The list also includes Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, Central Bureau of Investigation Director Praveen Sood, former Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi, Securities and Exchange Board of India chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey and former NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, among other serving and retired officials.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal were earlier among voters flagged during the exercise. Gupta’s entry, which was marked over an age-related discrepancy, was subsequently validated after verification of documents. Kejriwal and members of his family were among those whose entries could not be mapped to the previous intensive revision.
The notices have also drawn political criticism. Rajya Sabha member Kapil Sibal, who received a notice along with his wife under the unmapped category, questioned the manner in which the exercise was being conducted. Opposition parties have separately raised concerns over the scale of notices and exclusions from the draft roll, while election authorities maintain that the process provides safeguards and individual hearings before any deletion.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on September 22 a petition seeking greater transparency over notices issued during the Delhi SIR. The petition asks for disclosure of the names of affected electors, the reasons for notices and the criteria used to identify logical discrepancies. The court has already been hearing broader challenges concerning the revision process.
Delhi’s draft roll contains more than 97 lakh electors. The SIR required voters to submit enumeration forms during a door-to-door exercise conducted from June 30 to August 17. Authorities then compared the information with the previous intensive revision and other available records.
