SC to Hear Petition Against Mass Exclusions, Logical Discrepancy In Delhi SIR

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday (September 17) agreed to give priority to a petition challenging discrepancies in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in New Delhi. 

The exercise has been mired in controversy since the process began on June 30, with nearly one-third of the capital’s voters, over 47 lakh people, left off the draft voter list published on August 31.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Thursday said the petition filed by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi would be listed for hearing on September 21.

The petition raised concerns over notices being prepared for another 33 lakh people in addition to the ones removed from the draft list. Bhushan told the court that these notices were being issued on the basis of “logical discrepancies” and “mapping”.

Logical discrepancies refer to inconsistencies in voters’ personal details. These can include unusual age differences between family members, changes in parents’ names and entries supported only by Aadhaar, he said.

Mapping involves checking voters’ details against older electoral records or voting records of family members from previous generations.

Bhushan said the electoral authorities had not disclosed the names of those being issued notices, despite rules requiring such information to be made public, the Hindu reported. He argued that the names should be published on the Election Commission’s website.

He also said that some people had received notices while others had not, and that the notices did not explain why recipients had been called or why their records had been marked as containing a “logical discrepancy”.

Transparency activist Anjali Bharadwaj, who is also a petitioner in the case, said, "19.33 lakh electors have been flagged as 'Electors having Logical Discrepancies' and are being sent notices. However, the term 'logical discrepancies' has neither been defined, nor has any specific criteria or parameters prescribed by the ECI to determine the circumstances in which an elector would fall within the said category. This opens the door for arbitrariness."

Bhushan, while describing the SIR process as “totally opaque”, urged the court to hear the matter at an early stage.

“We will list it on Monday (September 21). Such matters will have precedence,” CJI Kant said.

The key issues highlighted by the petitioners are the failure to place in the public domain the list of over 33 lakh voters to whom notices are being issued. The petition says that this is in violation of the procedure prescribed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in its own communication from May 14, 2026.

The petition also raises the issue of absence of defined criteria for “logical discrepancies”. It says that if 19.33 lakh electors have been flagged as “Electors having Logical Discrepancies” and are being sent notices, then the term ought to have been defined. "Nor have any specific criteria or parameters been prescribed by the ECI to determine the circumstances in which an elector would fall within the said category. This opens the door for arbitrariness," says the petition.

Another issue brought before the court is that notices issued to electors by the Electoral Roll Officers have failed to disclose specific facts or particulars. Instead, it says, Delhi's voters have been given "only generic grounds without disclosing the specific facts or particulars of individual cases" based on which the notices have been issued.

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