‘Alive’ to voters’ need to find their names on the electoral roll, ECI assures Supreme Court

“The Commission remains alive to the need to ensure that all those who are eligible to vote find their name in the voters’ lists,” the ECI assured the public. File | Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday (November 14, 2026) filed a supplementary affidavit in the Supreme Court detailing “further measures” in place to ensure that voters who have been wrongly left out as ‘absent, shifted, dead or duplicate’ from the draft electoral rolls are brought back in.“The Commission remains alive to the need to ensure that all those who are eligible to vote find their name in the voters’ lists,” the ECI assured the public.Directions issued to States, UTsIt said directions have been issued on November 6 to the Chief Electoral Officers of States and Union Territories where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was under way to allow such voters to submit the duly-filled Enumeration Form (Annexure A) to the ERO or AERO communicating their current ordinary residence.“Electors who have not shifted may submit the signed Enumeration Form (Annexure A) with the Annexure-B statement giving the reason for the earlier non-submission of the Enumeration Form. They can submit it to the ERO/ AERO/ BLO in person or through family members. Online submission option with e-sign will be available on the ECINET,” the affidavit said.For electors who have shifted within the State, and were found to be excluded from the draft roll, Form 8 (for shifting) is not required.“They can submit the Enumeration Form (Annexure A) with the Annexure-C statement (giving their new address and Assembly Constituency) and address proof to the ERO / AERO of the new constituency. They can also use the ‘Book a call with BLO’ facility, among others which are self-explanatory,” the ECI noted.List of left-out votersThe poll body informed the court that instructions have been given out to provide booth-wise lists of left-out electors (voters marked as ‘absent, shifted, dead or duplicate or ASDD) to be displayed afresh along with the “probable reasons” for non-inclusion.“The Enumeration Forms submitted by such electors shall be processed by the EROs in accordance with Rule 21(1) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 [for inclusion of names inadvertently omitted from the electoral roll] and the same EPIC number shall be re-assigned to them,” the affidavit clarified.However, any previously-registered elector, who was deleted from the draft roll, but had already submitted Form 6 [application for new voters], need not submit the Enumeration Form afresh. Their applications would be processed in accordance with the November 3 clarification on re-inclusion into the electoral roll without the fear of facing any criminal prosecution.The petitioners in the Supreme Court, activist Anjali Bhardwaj, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi, and Shailendra Mani Tripathi, represented by advocate Chand Qureshi, had raised apprehensions that previously registered voters, excluded in the draft electoral roll, were being compelled by the ECI to submit Form 6, meant exclusively for fresh voters, for re-inclusion. They had argued that such false declarations were criminally prosecutable under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.“A mechanism has also been directed to be put in place to ensure that no elector is deprived of the opportunity to get his/her name included in the final electoral roll, subject to fulfilment of the prescribed eligibility conditions, while taking due care to avoid duplication in enrolment,” the ECI submitted.It further noted that upon the joining of a new Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC) on November 2, a new work order was issued two days later. The November 4 work order has partially modified the September 23 one, and the oversight on the functioning of the ECI’s IT Division was allocated to a senior DEC. According to the current workflow arrangement, the DG (IT) would put up the files of the IT Division through the senior DEC before the Commission. The IT Division of the ECI has always remained under the supervision of a DEC.This clarification is in the light of controversies and media reports that the DG (IT) had been bypassing the DEC level of oversight and reporting directly to the ECI. Both Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had objected to it. Further, concerns had also been raised about ECI’s IT division and centralised software overriding decisions made on the ground by the EROs. Published - November 14, 2026 10:31 pm IST