Election Commission Issues SIR Notices to Top Bureaucrats in Delhi

Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and several top serving and retired IAS officers, including Secretaries to the Government of India, are among the 31.63 lakh electors in Delhi who face Special Intensive Revision (SIR) notice to prove their eligibility to remain on the electoral rolls after their names were flagged in the Election Commission’s centralised software over discrepancies, or other reasons, records show. CBI director Praveen Sood’s details could also not be mapped with the previous SIR roll, as per the records. The Election Commission on Friday uploaded the boothwise list of the electors for the issuance of notices for either failing to map themselves with the electoral roll of the last intensive revision (“unmapped with last SIR”), or those having “logical discrepancies” in their details in the current and last rolls. Sandhu, who is one of the three-member Election Commission, made to one of the lists of electors from two booths in New Moti Bagh, the government residential colony that is home to the senior-most office-bearers and bureaucrats. His name has been flagged for a notice for “self name mismatch”, meaning that his name in the last intensive revision, which happened over the early 2000s across states, and current records differ. Confirming that Sandhu had been flagged for “discrepancy in name”, the office of the Electoral Registration Officer of Delhi Cantt constituency said in a statement Sunday: “In the present case, the details, facts and documents furnished by the elector have been duly verified. The electoral entry pertaining to Dr S.S. Sandhu, Election Commissioner of India, has already been validated and kept in the list for inclusion in the final electoral roll.” Among the top bureaucrats who are in the list of the electors against whom SIR notices are being issued for discrepancies and “no mapping” are Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Principal Scientific Advisor to Prime Minister Ajay Kumar Sood, Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances Secretary Nivedita Shukla Verma, Fisheries Secretary Abhilaksh Likhi, and his wife Sukriti Likhi, also a serving secretary at the Department of Ex-service Men’s Welfare, Fertiliser Secretary Rajat Kumar Mishra, and Land Resources Secretary Narendra Bhooshan. They are among the people who remained “unmapped with the Last SIR”. The bureaucrats against whom SIR notices are being issued for mismatch of names include Expenditure Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam. Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) K Sanjay Murthy, a former IAS officer, faces the notice for “parent name mismatch”. Several retired bureaucrats and officials are among the persons against whom SIR notices are being issued for discrepancies and “no mapping”. Among them are former NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, former Election Commissioner Arun Goel, former JNU vice-chancellor and UGC chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, former Animal Husbandry Secretary Alka Upadhyay, former Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, his wife and former CISF director-general Nina Singh, former Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane, and former Environment Secretary Leena Nandan. Their names appear on the list of 594 electors for whom notices have been issued at the two New Moti Bagh polling booths under the Delhi Cantt Assembly constituency, where most top bureaucrats have their official residences. Reacting to reports of the notices issued to “VIP” electors, the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer said in a statement on Sunday: “All stakeholders are hereby informed that issue of notice does not mean that their names will be deleted from the electoral rolls of NCT of Delhi. System generated notices are being issued to the above said categories to correct their data in ECINET. No name can be deleted without giving an opportunity to being heard and a proper, speaking, and appealable order.” The EC had published the draft roll of Delhi after weeding out 47.56 lakh electors, having declared them absent, shifted, dead or duplicate, on August 31. After that, the EC’s centralised ECINET portal began generating notices to those on the draft roll. In a statement on September 19, the Delhi CEO had said that notices were being issued to those not linked to the last intensive revision and those with “logical discrepancies”. “Electors have to submit reply/requisite documents to the ERO [Electoral Registration Officer] concerned on receipt of notice. Disposal of notices will be completed by 29.10.2026…As on date, 31,63,930 notices have been generated and are being delivered to electors concerned of NCT of Delhi,” the Delhi CEO office had said. Those whose names have been deleted or flagged have till October 30 to file claims and objections. The final roll of Delhi is scheduled to be published on November 4, as per the EC schedule. Hearings are being held across the city at the offices of Electoral Registration Officers, who are generally Sub-Divisional Magistrate rank officials and the statutory authority for electoral registration, where electors who have received notices are required to submit documents to establish their eligibility. The Indian Express reported on Sunday that Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj, and former Delhi BJP chief Virendra Kumar Sachdeva are among the 33 lakh electors in the Capital who have been asked to validate their details. Starting with Bihar in 2025, the EC has rolled out the SIR in 30 states/Union Territories so far, leading to the deletion of 13 crore names in the draft lists. For the first time, the EC has used a centralised system to generate notices to electors, which has led to the deletion of lakhs of names so far. In West Bengal, 27.16 lakh names were deleted after being flagged by the EC’s algorithms. (With inputs from Devansh Mittal)