SIR: Second Extension For Delhi, Maharashtra; Draft Roll Deadline Now August 24

The final roll is scheduled for release on October 27 in both states, which had received their first extension on July 15.

The Wire Staff

The final roll is scheduled for release on October 27 in both states, which had received their first extension on July 15.

sir second extension for delhi maharashtra draft roll deadline now august 24

The Election Commission's headquarters at Nirvachan Sadan. Photo: PIB Twitter page.

New Delhi: For the second time in three weeks, the Election Commission on Tuesday (August 4) extended its deadlines for the special intensive revision (SIR) of Delhi and Maharashtra's voter rolls by about a week.

Now, booth-level officers in both states will have until August 17 and not the 8th to complete the exercise's house-to-house enumeration stage.

Following this, the draft rolls are now to be published on August 24 as opposed to the 17th, while the claims and objections stage that will begin on the 24th will end on September 23.

EC officials will have until October 22 to dispose of claims to and objections against inclusion in the draft roll, and the final voter list is to be published on October 27 as compared to the previous deadline of October 19.

Delhi's chief electoral officer (CEO) had requested for another extension of the SIR timeline on Monday, while Maharashtra's CEO had done so on Tuesday itself, per the EC's communiques announcing the revised schedules.

The two states, where the house-to-house enumeration stage began on June 30, had received their last extension on July 15. In Maharashtra's case, the state's CEO had said last month that officials asked for more time in light of disruption due to the monsoon and the Ashadhi Vaari pilgrimage.

Of the three other states that started off with the same timelines as Delhi and Maharashtra, Karnataka has received one extension – also on July 15 – while Meghalaya and Jharkhand have not. In these two states the draft rolls are expected on Wednesday, August 5.

Meanwhile, a number of other states undergoing the SIR as part of the exercise's third nationwide phase have received extensions.

Having first kicked off in Bihar last year, the SIR has been hugely controversial for its compressed timelines and what its critics say is a shifting of the burden of determining one's eligibility to vote on to the elector.

Its most unprecedented consequences occurred in West Bengal, where lakhs of voters were flagged for ‘logical discrepancies’ in their data and ultimately some 27 lakh individuals were barred from voting in April's assembly elections because the authorities were not given enough time to adjudicate on their appeals for inclusion.

This article went live on August fifth, two thousand twenty six, at thirty-one minutes past one at night.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.