Delhi SIR: EROs to follow 10-point list before deleting names

The CEO's Friday warning to all District Election Officers and EROs specified that officials must strictly limit marking an elector as ineligible.

New Delhi: During the ongoing Special Revision of electoral rolls in the national capital, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has warned Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to follow a comprehensive checklist before marking a voter as “ineligible” or deleting their name from the roll entirely.

In a letter issued on Friday, September 25, Delhi CEO Ashok Kumar asked officers to go through a 10-point checklist before marking voters and emphasised not deleting voters’ names on “flimsy or frivolous grounds”. However, it is unclear what those grounds mean.

EROs told The Hindu that they could mark any voter ineligible on the Election Commission of India’s software for two reasons: Either by stating that the person did not appear for their hearing following multiple rescheduling attempts or when the submitted documents fail to meet verification standards.

Once an ERO marks a voter as ineligible, that status becomes permanent enough that the officers or CEO can no longer reverse the designation, requiring intervention through higher statutory appeals or courts, according to the report.

The CEO’s Friday warning to all District Election Officers and EROs specified that officials must strictly limit marking an elector as ineligible in instances where the individual fails to satisfy at least one of the constitutional criteria under Article 324.

EROs are required to document the decision in a “speaking order,” meaning an order that explicitly states the reasons the elector failed to meet the conditions. An ERO said deleting a voter is no easy task. “It should be proven beyond a doubt,” said ERO Iti Agarwal of the Rajouri Garden constituency. She has marked just one voter for deletion as of now, the cause being death.

The letter comes amid uproar over the ECI and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar as they face scrutiny over mass voter exclusion across states during SIR.