Delhi's 47 lakh struck-off voters need one clear form, not a reassuring letter

Nearly a third of Delhi’s electorate, 47.56 lakh people, was left out of the draft roll published on August 31 under the Special Intensive Revision. Most were marked as having shifted. Many of them were on the 2026 rolls and still live in the city. They have until November 25 to get back on, and the question of how they should do it has been back before the Supreme Court again and again.

On October 28 the court made its view plain. Voters who were already on the rolls, it suggested, should not be pushed onto Form 6, the form for new voters, but allowed to use Form 8 or the enumeration form. Chief Justice Surya Kant put the principle simply: “Instead of putting the burden on them that they will approach, why don’t you reach out to them?” The Commission’s own counsel told the bench it would provide a separate form, not called Form 6.

A letter instead of a form

What came instead, on November 3, was a letter to state electoral officers. It says missing electors may submit Form 6 even if they were enrolled before, that such a declaration is “not, by itself, false merely because the elector was previously enrolled”, and that no one will be prosecuted on that ground alone.

On Wednesday the petitioners told the Chief Justice this runs against what the court had suggested. He said the matter was pending and that people need not be apprehensive, and the issue will be heard on November 19.

Getting Delhi's deleted voters back on the roll

1. August 31Draft roll leaves out 47.56 lakh Delhi voters
2. October 28Supreme Court suggests Form 8 or the enumeration form for voters already on the rolls
3. November 3Election Commission letter says missing electors may file Form 6
4. November 4Petitioners raise the letter before the Chief Justice
5. November 19Supreme Court to hear the issue
6. November 25Last date for claims and objections
7. December 22Final roll due

The fair objection

The Commission has a point. Form 6 is a working route, the Delhi High Court said last month that the fear of a false-declaration charge was misplaced, and the November 3 letter puts the promise of no prosecution in writing. Applications are coming in: about 2.76 lakh Form 6 applications were filed between August 31 and October 28, though that figure includes first-time voters. Changing forms in mid-revision could confuse people further.

But a voter who has been on the roll for years is being asked to sign a form built for someone who never was, on the strength of an assurance in a circular she will never see. That is not how an electoral roll should be rebuilt. And 2.76 lakh applications against 47.56 lakh deletions suggests the present route is not reaching most of the people it is meant for.

What voters need from the Commission

First, accept Form 8 or the enumeration form from anyone who was on the 2026 roll, as the bench suggested, and keep Form 6 for genuinely new voters. If the Commission prefers a separate form, as its counsel indicated, it should issue it this week.

Second, publish the list of deleted names at every booth and in every block office, so that voters can find themselves without an app or a lawyer, and send booth-level officers to the listed addresses before the deadline.

Third, explain the process in plain Hindi and the city’s other languages, in newspapers and at polling stations, as the petitioners have asked.

Fourth, report weekly until November 25 how many deleted voters have applied and how many have been restored. The final roll is due on December 22. Delhi should know well before then whether lakhs of its residents are about to lose their vote because of paperwork.

The burden of proving that a voter exists should not fall on the voter alone. The court has said so. The Commission should act as if it heard.