NEW DELHI, Sep 20: Former deputy prime minister L K Advani, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, former vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar and Election Commissioner S S Sandhu are among several prominent voters who have received notices over discrepancies identified during Delhi’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, officials said on Sunday.
The notices were issued after the draft electoral rolls covering more than 97 lakh voters were published. Officials said around 33.13 lakh notices were being issued to voters whose details in their enumeration forms showed discrepancies, with a large number involving records that could not be matched with the previous SIR conducted in 2002.
The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s office said the notices were system-generated as part of the verification process and were intended to allow voters to correct or establish their details in the ECINET system. It clarified that receiving a notice does not mean that a voter’s name will automatically be removed from the electoral roll.
Advani, his daughter Pratibha and daughter in law Geetika were issued notices because their names could not be mapped to the 2002 electoral records. His son Jayant, however, cleared the mapping process. All four are registered voters in the New Delhi Assembly constituency.
Jaishankar and his wife, Kyoko Jaishankar, also received notices under the “unmapped with last SIR” category. Their names are registered in the Sunehri Bagh area of the New Delhi constituency.
Dhankhar and his wife Sudesh, whose voter records carry the address of the Vice President’s residence, were also served notices. Sandhu received a notice concerning a mismatch in his name, while a notice issued to his son Damanbir cited a discrepancy in his parent’s name. They are voters in the Delhi Cantonment constituency.
Other prominent names appearing in the notice lists include Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, former JNU vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar, former Delhi lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung, former NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, SEBI Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey, former Army chief Upendra Dwevedi and CBI Director Praveen Sood.
Sisodia, his wife Seema and their son Meer have also received notices. Officials cited discrepancies involving the names of his family members in some of the notices.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal and senior advocate Kapil Sibal are among other prominent voters whose names appeared in the notices. Gupta’s record was subsequently verified, and her name has been cleared for inclusion in the final electoral roll for Shalimar Bagh.
Sibal, who received a notice along with his wife under the “unmapped with last SIR” category, criticised the exercise and described it as “special intensive deletion” of votes.
The Delhi CEO office said voters receiving notices can submit their replies and supporting documents to the concerned Electoral Registration Officer or Booth Level Officer. Officials stressed that no name can be removed without giving the voter an opportunity to present their case and without issuing a proper order that can be appealed.
The name of late economist Bibek Debroy, who died in November 2024, also appeared in the notice list. Officials said his entry would be removed from the final electoral roll after his death was taken into account.
The claims and objections stage of the SIR process will continue until September 30. Voters issued notices have been asked to submit their responses and documents to the relevant electoral authorities by October 29. The final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on November 4.