Photo: Ramesh Lalwani / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Delhi residents who are missing from the draft electoral roll prepared under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), and young people hoping to vote for the first time, now have until November 25 to file claims and objections. The Election Commission of India revised the Capital’s schedule on Thursday, October 29, a day before the earlier October 30 cut-off was due to expire.
The new Delhi timeline
Under the commission’s letter to Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer, the window for claims and objections is extended by 26 days. The notice phase and the disposal of claims, which was to end on November 30, will now run until December 15. The final electoral roll, which had been scheduled for early December, will be published on December 22.
The commission said the change was made at the request of the Chief Electoral Officer. The extra weeks are meant to give voters more time to check whether their names appear in the draft roll, and to give registration officials more time to process applications and finish verification.
Why it matters for Delhi
The stakes in the Capital are unusually high. When the revision began on June 30, Delhi had about 1.45 crore registered voters. The draft roll released on August 31 carried about 97.5 lakh names, which means roughly 47.6 lakh electors, nearly one in three, were left out. Since then, only about 2.75 lakh people have submitted Form 6, the application for inclusion in the roll.
The extension came a day after the Supreme Court pressed the commission on the Delhi exercise. On October 28, a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant asked why electors who were on the 2026 roll were being directed to apply afresh as first-time voters on Form 6, urged the commission to reach out to the excluded electors instead of leaving the burden on them, and remarked that there was no need to rush because Delhi is not heading for elections soon. The commission’s counsel had told the court it would consider extending the October 30 deadline if needed.
Five states also get more time
In separate letters dated October 29, the commission also revised the SIR schedules in five states after requests from their Chief Electoral Officers:
- Maharashtra: claims and objections until November 13, disposal until November 25, final roll on November 30.
- Telangana: notices and disposal of claims until November 26, final roll on November 30 instead of November 9.
- Haryana and Andhra Pradesh: notices and disposal of claims until November 20, final roll on November 30.
- Nagaland: notices and disposal of claims until November 25, final roll on November 30.
What happens next
Electors in Delhi who cannot find their names in the draft roll, along with eligible first-time voters, can still seek inclusion until November 25. The commission has asked that the revised schedule be given wide publicity and that its notification be published in the official gazette. Separately, the Supreme Court is due to take up the petition on the Delhi revision again about two weeks after its October 28 hearing. The SIR schedule has already been revised several times in the past.
