EC extends SIR deadlines in Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya

The Election Commission of India on Wednesday extended the schedule for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya, giving election officials additional time to complete pending hearings, dispose of claims and objections and prepare the final voter lists.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the full Election Commission at Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi at 4.30 pm. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners S S Sandhu and Vivek Joshi attended the meeting. It was the second meeting of the full Commission in four days.

Under the revised schedule, the notice phase and disposal of claims and objections in Andhra Pradesh will continue until October 10. The final electoral roll will now be published on October 16. In Meghalaya, the Commission has moved the final publication date to October 26 from October 21.

Andhra gets another extension

The latest revision marks another extension of the SIR process in Andhra Pradesh, where draft electoral rolls were published on July 31. The original claims and objections deadline was August 30, but the Commission subsequently extended the schedule as the verification exercise continued.

The state had most recently been expected to complete disposal of claims and objections by October 5 and publish its final electoral roll on October 9. Wednesday's decision gives officials another five days to complete the disposal process and shifts final publication by a week to October 16.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Vivek Yadav said the extension was granted in view of pending hearings involving electors whose details could not be mapped with earlier electoral rolls, cases involving logical discrepancies and applications submitted through Forms 6, 7 and 8.

The objective, according to the election authorities, is to ensure that pending cases are examined before the final rolls are published and that eligible electors are not inadvertently excluded.

Nearly 44.27 lakh hearings completed

The extension comes after election authorities reported substantial progress in the verification exercise. Of around 44.28 lakh notices delivered to voters in Andhra Pradesh, hearings relating to approximately 44.27 lakh had been completed by September 28, accounting for 99.96 per cent of the notices.

Officials said 1,665 electors had not responded to notices. Around 1.68 lakh voters in the existing rolls had been found ineligible for inclusion in the final rolls following the verification process, including cases where required documents were not furnished or electors did not appear for hearings.

At the same time, thousands of applications for fresh inclusion and changes remained under consideration. The Commission's extension gives election officials additional time to process such cases before publication of the final roll.

Meghalaya roll pushed to October 26

The Commission has also extended the SIR calendar in Meghalaya, where the final electoral roll will now be published on October 26 instead of October 21.

The state's election authorities had been working through a large number of notices generated following publication of the draft electoral roll. As of September 29, 6,51,735 notices had been generated, of which 6,51,066 had been delivered.

A total of 5,90,784 hearings had been completed, representing 90.65 per cent of notices generated. Election authorities said 910 electors had been found ineligible for inclusion in the final roll after the prescribed process, while more than 19 lakh electors from the draft roll had been cleared for final publication.

The Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer had directed district election officers, electoral registration officers and assistant electoral registration officers to closely monitor the remaining cases and provide electors a reasonable opportunity to participate in hearings.

Second full Commission meeting in four days

Wednesday's meeting came just four days after the three-member Commission met on September 26. The earlier meeting had resulted in extensions to SIR timelines in Delhi and Maharashtra.

The sequence of meetings comes amid political scrutiny of the nationwide electoral-roll revision. Opposition parties have raised questions about the SIR methodology and the possibility of eligible electors being excluded, while the Election Commission has maintained that the exercise is intended to ensure the accuracy of electoral rolls by retaining eligible voters and removing ineligible entries.

The SIR involves a more extensive verification of electoral rolls than routine annual revisions. Booth Level Officers undertake enumeration and verification, after which draft rolls are published and voters are provided an opportunity to file claims and objections. Cases involving discrepancies or questions over eligibility can then be taken up for hearings before final rolls are prepared.

Focus turns to final rolls

With the revised calendar, Andhra Pradesh election officials now have until October 10 to finish the notice phase and dispose of claims and objections before publication of the final roll six days later.

In Meghalaya, officials will have additional time to complete the remaining hearings before the final roll is published on October 26. The extensions mean the SIR exercise in both states will continue deeper into October as election authorities work through unresolved verification cases before freezing the revised electoral rolls.