The Supreme Court will hear a plea seeking disclosure of Delhi voters issued revision notices. The case could shape safeguards and restoration procedures for previously enrolled electors.
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Newdelhi,Oct 14, 2026 11:54 IST
The Supreme Court will hear on October 28 a plea seeking directions to the Election Commission to make public the list of voters issued notices during the Special Intensive Revision of Delhi's electoral roll, along with the specific reason for each notice.
The petitioners have also sought a mechanism to restore voters whose names were removed during the revision without requiring them to declare that they are applying for inclusion for the first time.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners, mentioned the matter before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on Wednesday.
Bhushan said the period for filing claims and objections had been extended until October 30, after which the final voter list would be published. He said the Supreme Court had issued notice on the main petition last month and the matter was likely to be heard on October 30.
After Bhushan requested that the plea be heard before October 30, the bench advanced the hearing to October 28. When he urged the court to hear it even earlier, the bench said, “We are thinking of passing an order that will take care of it.”
On September 26, the Election Commission extended the deadline for filing claims and objections in the ongoing revision by a month to October 30. The final voter list is now scheduled to be published on December 4.
The Supreme Court had on September 22 agreed to hear the petition filed by Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri. The petition also sought the disclosure of the criteria, definitions, parameters used by computer systems and operational guidelines governing the classification of voters under the category of “logical discrepancies”.
The petitioners recently filed an application in the pending case, seeking a direction that previously enrolled voters should not be required to submit the declaration in Form 6, which they said was “factually inapplicable to such elector”. They also sought a suitable form or declaration for restoring previously enrolled voters to the electoral roll.
Form 6 is used by an eligible person to apply for inclusion in the electoral roll.
“The present application raises the issue arising from the mechanism prescribed for re-inclusion of previously enrolled electors whose names have been omitted from the electoral roll pursuant to the SIR in the NCT of Delhi,” the application said.
It also sought a direction to the Election Commission not to reject an otherwise valid claim for inclusion or restoration solely because the applicant had not submitted the additional declaration required under the revision exercise.
During the hearing of the main petition on September 22, the Supreme Court told the Election Commission that notices under the revision exercise in Delhi were being sent “almost mechanically” and that additional safeguards should be considered. The court also said the basis for identifying a “logical discrepancy” needed clarification.
On August 31, the Election Commission published a draft electoral roll in which 47 lakh voters were removed from Delhi's total of 1.45 crore voters. The commission said more than 43.32 lakh voters had shifted or were absent during the revision, more than 2.82 lakh had died and more than 1.41 lakh were enrolled at multiple places.
The October 28 hearing will consider the demand for disclosure of the voters issued notices and the reasons for doing so, as well as the petitioners' request for a suitable process to restore previously enrolled voters whose names were removed.
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