The name of late economist Bibek Debroy, former chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, has surfaced among voters being issued notices over discrepancies during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Delhi, despite his death nearly two years ago.
Debroy, who died in November 2024, figures in the draft electoral roll and has been marked as “unmapped with last SIR”. His entry is among around 33 lakh electors identified for notices either because their details could not be linked with the electoral roll prepared during Delhi’s previous SIR in 2002 or because of discrepancies detected in their records.
Name to be deleted
A senior election official said authorities were aware of Debroy’s death and that his name would be excluded from the final electoral roll. According to officials, the Booth Level Officer had already flagged that Debroy was deceased. His name, however, continued to figure in the draft roll because of Election Commission instructions concerning certain previously flagged categories of prominent electors.
The Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s office said the EC had directed that names of members of the judiciary, public representatives, holders of declared offices and prominent personalities from fields including arts, culture, journalism, sports and public service, whose records had earlier been flagged in the electoral database, should be retained in the draft rolls. The purpose was to ensure that the required verification and collection of documents could be completed during the claims and objections period before preparation of the final electoral roll.
Part of flagged list
Debroy was part of this flagged list, an election official said. Under the EC’s instructions, names in the VVIP and VIP category that had been flagged were included in the draft roll so that their records could be dealt with during the claims and objections phase. Officials said this requirement meant Debroy’s entry could not be deleted at the draft stage even though the BLO had reported his death. His electoral record was instead classified as “unmapped with last SIR”, a category that accounts for a large proportion of the notices being issued in Delhi.
33 lakh voters flagged
Around 33.13 lakh voters whose names appear in Delhi’s draft electoral rolls have been identified for notices during the SIR. More than 31.6 lakh notices had already been generated and were being delivered as of Saturday.
There are broadly two categories of notices — those for electors whose records could not be mapped to the 2002 SIR roll and those whose mapped records contain “logical discrepancies”, including differences in names, dates of birth or parental details. Election officials have stressed that receiving a notice does not automatically mean a voter’s name will be removed. Electors can submit the necessary documents to the concerned Electoral Registration Officer for verification during the claims and objections process.
Prominent names on list
Several serving and former public figures have also been flagged during the exercise. The notices have drawn attention to the scale and complexity of matching present-day voter information with electoral records dating back more than two decades.
The draft electoral roll was published on August 31. The claims and objections process is currently underway, after which officials will scrutinise the records before publishing Delhi’s final electoral roll. In Debroy’s case, officials have said the verification process will result in his name being removed from the final list since his death has already been established.