Mumbai voters challenge SIR home-visit implementation
Mumbai voters are reporting continued demands to visit election offices with documents despite revised Special Intensive Revision instructions requiring booth-level officers to collect papers at their homes.
The complaints have exposed a gap between the Election Commission’s revised procedure and its implementation as Maharashtra works through more than 1.22 crore electors flagged in the draft roll for either mapping failures or logical discrepancies.
State election authorities instructed officials on September 30 that voters issued notices in the “No Mapping” and “Logical Discrepancies” categories need not appear personally for hearings. BLOs were directed to visit their residences, obtain supporting documents from voters or relatives and upload the material through the BLO application to ECINet for consideration by electoral registration officers or assistant electoral registration officers.
The instruction also requires BLOs to write on notices being delivered that physical attendance at a hearing is unnecessary. Voters who had already received notices were to be contacted by telephone, WhatsApp or another communication channel and told to keep the necessary documents ready.
Yet several Mumbai electors say they have continued to be called to offices or designated locations. A Borivli voter who received a notice waited for the promised BLO visit but said nobody had arrived. In Deonar, around 30 residents of one housing society received notices, including an elderly voter whose entry contained initials rather than his full name. He said he went to the BLO office and submitted papers for himself and his son after their records were treated as mismatches.
Retired Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur also publicly disputed the claim that physical attendance was unnecessary, saying he had been asked to visit the BLO and had subsequently received a hearing notice requiring him to produce documents at an appointed place.
Election officials have acknowledged operational difficulties. Some said BLOs were fatigued after the prolonged SIR exercise and asked residents to cooperate where officers were stationed in housing society offices or nearby locations rather than insisting on individual home visits. They also said voters were sometimes unavailable or did not answer doors or telephone calls.
Other BLOs have continued home verification. An officer assigned to Jogeshwari West said there were 102 anomaly cases in the jurisdiction and that elderly residents were being visited because travelling to camps was difficult for them. The officer said only 14 cases remained and notes or messages had been left with family members where voters were unavailable.
The September 30 directive, however, is explicit that BLOs are expected to visit the homes of affected voters and that district election officers, EROs and AEROs must ensure compliance. Documents may alternatively be submitted online or through WhatsApp where verification is possible.
The controversy follows a door-to-door phase that began on June 30, when BLOs were tasked with distributing enumeration forms. The timetable was later extended, and the draft rolls were published on August 31. The latest directions were designed to reduce inconvenience during scrutiny by shifting document collection back to election staff rather than requiring office appearances.
A personal hearing is envisaged only where evidence remains inadequate or officials cannot reach a positive decision on the material available. Before any name is deleted, the elector must be given sufficient opportunity to provide documents and be heard, and authorities must ensure that an eligible voter is not denied enrolment. Exceptional hearings may be conducted online, with an authorised adult family member permitted to participate where required.
The scale of the verification adds pressure to the machinery. Of the roughly 1.22 crore electors flagged across Maharashtra, about 62.48 lakh were identified for logical discrepancies and 59.75 lakh as unmapped. The state had 9.78 crore electors before the revision exercise, while about 1.54 crore names were absent from the draft roll because voters were categorised as absent, shifted, dead, duplicate or for other reasons.
The complaints have exposed a gap between the Election Commission’s revised procedure and its implementation as Maharashtra works through more than 1.22 crore electors flagged in the draft roll for either mapping failures or logical discrepancies.
State election authorities instructed officials on September 30 that voters issued notices in the “No Mapping” and “Logical Discrepancies” categories need not appear personally for hearings. BLOs were directed to visit their residences, obtain supporting documents from voters or relatives and upload the material through the BLO application to ECINet for consideration by electoral registration officers or assistant electoral registration officers.
The instruction also requires BLOs to write on notices being delivered that physical attendance at a hearing is unnecessary. Voters who had already received notices were to be contacted by telephone, WhatsApp or another communication channel and told to keep the necessary documents ready.
Yet several Mumbai electors say they have continued to be called to offices or designated locations. A Borivli voter who received a notice waited for the promised BLO visit but said nobody had arrived. In Deonar, around 30 residents of one housing society received notices, including an elderly voter whose entry contained initials rather than his full name. He said he went to the BLO office and submitted papers for himself and his son after their records were treated as mismatches.
Retired Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur also publicly disputed the claim that physical attendance was unnecessary, saying he had been asked to visit the BLO and had subsequently received a hearing notice requiring him to produce documents at an appointed place.
Election officials have acknowledged operational difficulties. Some said BLOs were fatigued after the prolonged SIR exercise and asked residents to cooperate where officers were stationed in housing society offices or nearby locations rather than insisting on individual home visits. They also said voters were sometimes unavailable or did not answer doors or telephone calls.
Other BLOs have continued home verification. An officer assigned to Jogeshwari West said there were 102 anomaly cases in the jurisdiction and that elderly residents were being visited because travelling to camps was difficult for them. The officer said only 14 cases remained and notes or messages had been left with family members where voters were unavailable.
The September 30 directive, however, is explicit that BLOs are expected to visit the homes of affected voters and that district election officers, EROs and AEROs must ensure compliance. Documents may alternatively be submitted online or through WhatsApp where verification is possible.
The controversy follows a door-to-door phase that began on June 30, when BLOs were tasked with distributing enumeration forms. The timetable was later extended, and the draft rolls were published on August 31. The latest directions were designed to reduce inconvenience during scrutiny by shifting document collection back to election staff rather than requiring office appearances.
A personal hearing is envisaged only where evidence remains inadequate or officials cannot reach a positive decision on the material available. Before any name is deleted, the elector must be given sufficient opportunity to provide documents and be heard, and authorities must ensure that an eligible voter is not denied enrolment. Exceptional hearings may be conducted online, with an authorised adult family member permitted to participate where required.
The scale of the verification adds pressure to the machinery. Of the roughly 1.22 crore electors flagged across Maharashtra, about 62.48 lakh were identified for logical discrepancies and 59.75 lakh as unmapped. The state had 9.78 crore electors before the revision exercise, while about 1.54 crore names were absent from the draft roll because voters were categorised as absent, shifted, dead, duplicate or for other reasons.