Eligible Delhi residents whose names were excluded from the draft voter list during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) can apply to have them restored through Form-6, Chief Electoral Officer Ashok Kumar has said. The clarification comes as officials begin re-verifying 47.56 lakh people left out of the draft list.
Kumar told Dainik Jagran that exclusion from the SIR draft does not by itself end a person’s voting rights. Eligible residents can seek inclusion through the Special Summary Revision (SSR), which is conducted four times a year. The process will allow residents whose names are missing from the final list to apply for inclusion under the prescribed procedure.
According to the report, applicants will mainly need to submit an Aadhaar card and proof of residence with Form-6. The Chief Electoral Officer said the final voter list would be published on December 4. If an eligible resident’s name does not appear in that list, the person can still use the SSR process to seek inclusion and vote once the application is accepted under the applicable rules.
The SIR draft list published on August 31 contained the names of 97.53 lakh voters out of Delhi’s total 1.45 crore electors. The remaining 47.56 lakh voters were placed in categories including absent, shifted, deceased or duplicate entries, commonly referred to as ASDD. Booth-level officers (BLOs) have now been instructed to visit the addresses again and verify these cases.
If a qualified voter is found at the recorded address and the name is absent from the draft list, the BLO will facilitate the Form-6 process for adding the name. The report said the re-verification exercise is also intended to address cases involving residents who may have moved from demolished settlements or other disrupted residential locations.
Separately, notices were issued to 33.12 lakh voters included in the draft list because of discrepancies in personal details or because their names could not be matched with the 2002 voter list. Around 24 lakh of these cases had been resolved, with the remaining cases targeted for resolution by October 30. Officials have also been instructed not to reject applications solely because of minor errors in personal details.
The electoral authorities received 230,165 Form-6 applications after the claims and objections period began. Another 212,400 applications had been received before publication of the draft list. These applications are being processed under the rules prescribed by the Election Commission, according to the report.
Special camps have been established for displaced voters from demolished settlements and other affected areas. Locations named in the report include Bela Estate, Jailorwala Bagh, Narela, Bawana, Mangolpuri and the Wazirpur Industrial Area. The camps will continue throughout the claims and objections period, while BLOs continue address-level verification ahead of publication of the final voter list on December 4.
