In yet another major course correction in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Election Commission has effectively withdrawn much-publicised hearing process for voters flagged during scrutiny and shifted the responsibility back to Booth Level Officers (BLOs), raising fresh questions over planning and execution of the massive exercise. The Commission has now directed BLOs to visit residences of voters whose records remain unmapped or have been flagged for anomalies, collect supporting documents and upload them on the ECINet platform. Based on these documents, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) will take a final decision on the cases.

 

The change comes barely days after physical hearings began across Maharashtra on September 23, with lakhs of voters being asked to appear before election authorities to resolve discrepancies in their electoral records. In Nagpur district alone, the exercise involved scrutiny of a staggering 8,65,886 electors. Official figures show that 4,18,012 voters could not be mapped during the verification process, while another 4,47,874 electors were flagged for anomalies by the Election Commission’s software. To conduct the hearings, the administration had deployed 507 EROs and AEROs across the district.

 

However, first week of hearings was marked by confusion over procedures, uncertainty regarding required documents and inconvenience to voters travelling to designated centres. Several electors complained of spending hours trying to understand the process, while others expressed concern over repeated changes in instructions. District election officials confirmed that the revised guidelines have been communicated to EROs and AEROs, who will now brief BLOs regarding the fresh procedure in the coming days. Under the new arrangement, persons issued notices for being unmapped or having logical discrepancies in their records will generally not be required to attend hearings. BLOs will collect documents from their homes and submit them to the concerned EROs and AEROs. Hearings, if required, will be held only in exceptional cases and preferably through online mode. The Commission has also permitted any adult family member authorised by the elector to represent them during such proceedings.