Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) office has replaced its weekly disposal report for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with officials saying the data being uploaded earlier was wrong and did not reflect the disposals recorded since August 31, when the claims and objections phase began, The Hindu reported on Friday, October 23.

Source: The Hindu

According to the updated report, 1,07,451 (23.3 per cent) of the 4,59,796 Form 6 applications — filed by citizens seeking enrolment, including first-time voters and those whose names were missing from the draft roll — have been disposed of by October 21. A total of 47,105 of the 67,709 Form 7 applications, filed to object to a name's inclusion or seek its deletion, have also been disposed of — nearly 70 per cent of them.

Source: Fact / Delhi CEO data

The revision is sharp. The Hindu had earlier reported that only 0.27 per cent, or 1,238 of the over 4.5 lakh Form 6 applications, had been disposed of between August 31 and October 11. An official told the newspaper: “The weekly data being uploaded till now was wrong and it was not reflecting the disposals that happened since August 31, we noticed after the newspaper report.”

What changed in the numbers

The updated report covers the seven weeks between August 31 and October 18. The first week's Form 6 disposals were revised from 241 to 511, the second week's from 34 to 4,543, and the week of September 28 to October 4 from zero to 14,643. The latest week, October 12 to 18, alone accounts for 43,736 Form 6 disposals — the highest for any week and over 40 per cent of all such disposals so far. Form 7 figures for the first six weeks were revised from 5,845 to 40,796. The report also shows 1,70,333 Form 8 applications for corrections and address changes disposed of.

Fifteen Assembly constituencies that showed zero Form 6 disposals in all six weeks in the earlier report, including Burari, Shakur Basti and Kalkaji, now show cases being disposed of. Tri Nagar is still the only constituency in Delhi with no Form 6 disposals recorded in any of the seven weeks, according to the updated data.

The wider SIR picture in Delhi

The draft electoral roll published on August 31 listed 97.53 lakh electors, down from 1.45 crore before the SIR exercise, with around 47.5 lakh names excluded. Those missing from the draft roll could apply for inclusion through Form 6. Around 33.12 lakh notices were issued to electors whose details could not be matched with the 2002 SIR details or were flagged for logical discrepancies, and officials had earlier said more than 80 per cent of those cases had been resolved.

Officials clarified that disposal does not necessarily mean an application has been accepted, as claims and objections are decided on the basis of the details and documents submitted, and outcomes will be reflected in the final electoral roll. The deadline for filing claims and objections is October 30; election authorities will focus on disposing of pending applications and notices from October 31 to November 30, ahead of publication of the final roll on December 4.