Delhi voter roll revision starts today: Here's everything you need to know

The month-long Special Intensive Revision will verify nearly 14.5 million voters through door-to-door visits before Delhi's electoral rolls are finalised in October

Delhi on Tuesday began a month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of its electoral rolls, with more than 13,000 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) conducting door-to-door verification of nearly 14.5 million voters. The exercise aims to update the electoral roll by adding eligible voters and removing duplicate, shifted and ineligible entries ahead of future elections.

 

The exercise will continue in the city until July 29. The Election Commission of India (ECI) will then publish the draft electoral roll on August 5.

 

The residents will then be invited to submit claims and objections until September 4. The notice phase and disposal of claims and objections will take place from August 5 to October 3. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be released by October 10.

 

 

What is SIR?

 

The SIR is undertaken to verify eligible voters and ensure that the electoral roll is pure, accurate, and up to date, according to the ECI. BLOs hand out enumeration forms to residents, verifying existing voter details, helping residents enrol and identifying electors who have died, permanently shifted or are registered at more than one place.

 

The exercise is underway across 16 states and three Union Territories, ahead of the qualifying date of October 1, 2026.

 

How will the SIR be carried out?

 

To conduct the exercise, BLOs will visit each household to hand over enumeration forms to registered voters, helping them fill out the details. The officers will then collect the filled forms on their second visit.

 

In case a house is found locked, the forms will be left, and an attempt to collect the filled forms will be made at least three times by the BLOs. Attempts to identify likely reasons, such as absence, shifting, death or duplicate registration based on local inquiry, will be carried out in case the forms are not returned.

 

No documents are collected during the enumeration phase. However, electors whose names, or those of their parents or grandparents, cannot be linked to the 2002 electoral rolls may be asked to provide supporting documents in the next stage of SIR. 

 

What should voters check?

 

Residents should ensure that:

 

Name appears on the electoral roll

Address and polling station details are correct

Duplicate entries, if any, are removed

Names of deceased or shifted family members are updated

Newly eligible family members are added to the voter list

 

According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Delhi, Alok Kumar, electors who are permanently staying in Delhi before 2002 can check their name in the 2002 voter list available on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi, he told LiveMint.

 

What documents will voters need?

 

Documents will be required only in case of additional verification by officials.

 

List of documents most asked during SIR process:

 

Birth certificate

Passport

Educational certificate

Permanent residence certificate

Government-issued identity document

Land or house allotment certificate

 

What happens after verification?

 

After BLOs collect the forms, the election commission will publish a draft roll containing the names of eligible voters.

 

The draft will include voters who were successfully verified, while names proposed for deletion or requiring further scrutiny may be excluded or flagged separately. Lists of absent, shifted, deceased or duplicate voters will also be made available for public inspection.

 

Voters will then be allowed to file claims and objections before corrections, additions and deletions are finalised. The objections will be examined by an Electoral Registration Officer (ERO), who will conduct another field visit if required.

 

After all claims, objections and hearings have been disposed of, the ECI will publish the final electoral roll, which will be used for future elections in Delhi. Voters dissatisfied with an ERO's decision can appeal to the District Magistrate, and subsequently to the Chief Electoral Officer.

 

What can lead to deletion from the voter list?

 

A voter's name may be deleted from the electoral roll if the person has died, permanently shifted residence, is found to have duplicate registration, no longer ordinarily resides at the registered address, or is otherwise ineligible under electoral laws.

 

BLOs will verify such details through field visits, while EROs will examine the findings before taking any action. The ECI has maintained that no name will be removed arbitrarily.

 

Except in cases such as a verified death, voters whose names are proposed for deletion will be given a notice and an opportunity to respond before a final decision is taken. If a name is omitted from the draft electoral roll, the voter can apply for its restoration during the claims-and-objections period before the final roll is published.