Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Kapil Sibal has exposed what he calls serious failures in the Special Intensive Revision of Delhi’s electoral rolls after he and his wife Promila Sibal received official notices classifying them as “Unmapped with the last SIR.”
Sibal produced the 2002 SIR roll from Patna showing his name as a registered voter and displayed the enumeration form he submitted to the Booth Level Officer. The form carries both his signature and the BLO’s signature. He says he also provided his earlier SIR details for self-mapping. Yet the system still flagged the couple as unmapped.“How is it that my notice has been sent to me in the unmapped category?” Sibal asked. “Am I not a citizen of this country?”
The case is not isolated. According to figures Sibal cited from the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s data:
- 13,40,213 electors received notices marked “Unmapped with the last SIR”
- 7,65,112 received notices for “Parent Name Mismatch”
- 5,44,504 received notices for “Self Name Mismatch”
These form part of more than 33 lakh notices issued to voters whose names appear in the draft roll published on 31 August. The draft itself already excluded around 47 lakh names from the previous 1.45 crore electorate.
Sibal described the exercise as “special intensive deletion of valid votes and special intensive addition of invalid votes.” He questioned how a process that cannot correctly map a sitting MP who submitted signed documents and historical records can be trusted for ordinary citizens.
The Election Commission and Delhi CEO have said notices are issued where mapping with the 2002 SIR roll failed or where discrepancies appear in submitted details, and that voters can file replies with supporting documents. Sibal has indicated the matter will go to the Supreme Court.
The episode raises a direct question about the reliability of an exercise that has already removed tens of lakhs of names and placed another 33 lakh voters under scrutiny. If documented, signed forms from public figures are still classified as unmapped, the burden of proof now rests on the Election Commission to explain the integrity of the entire process.
JANPATH NEWS NETWORK (JNN)
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