Electoral Roll Revision: State Officers Warn of Deletions Bypassing EROs In Bengal

A state service officers' body has raised concerns as West Bengal's Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) are set to begin hearings from Saturday under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, according to a report in Indian Express.

The West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) Officers' Association, in a letter to Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal, with a copy sent to the office of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, flagged what it termed the "suo motu system-driven deletion of electors from the draft electoral rolls in West Bengal in the ongoing SIR process bypassing the statutory role of EROs".

Under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, EROs are the designated authority empowered to issue notices to electors if questions arise regarding eligibility, including citizenship. However, during the current revision exercise, notices have been generated through the Election Commission of India's (ECI) centralised software platform. Earlier this month, similar concerns had surfaced in Bihar, where EROs reported that pre-filled notices appeared on their official log-ins, bearing their names but not initiated by them.

An ERO in West Bengal, who requested anonymity, told the English daily that the notice-generation process is driven by the ECI's software. "We have an option/button for notice generation. When we use it, notice is automatically generated. At present, the software generates notices for voters who are not mapped with the 2002 SIR data. Accordingly, notices to these voters are sent. However, in the case of voters with 'logical discrepancies' in data, we have no power to decide which elector will be called for a hearing. That will be decided only by the ECI," the ERO from Nadia district said.

In its communication, the officers' association cautioned that deletions could occur without the knowledge of the statutory authority responsible for the process. "It is observed that names of electors might be deleted from the electoral roll without the knowledge of the ERO who is the competent authority as per the statute. The common people who will be affected by such action will only blame the ERO without knowing that the ERO has been kept out of the entire deletion process by the Commission," the letter stated.

Speaking to this newspaper, Saikat Asraf Ali, General Secretary of the association, said the officers were seeking clarity and transparency in the exercise. "If they make deletions, and what they have done so far, they should clarify to people that the ERO is not responsible for the deletions. Otherwise people will blame us. We also don't want any genuine elector's name to be deleted," he said.

Officials in the West Bengal CEO's office, however, maintained that the process was being carried out in accordance with prior instructions. A senior official said detailed guidelines had been issued to all District Election Officers (DEOs), EROs and Assistant EROs in October, before the SIR commenced in the state. "Why are the officers raising such questions now? Only those electors who have no mapping with 2002 SIR are being served notices to come for hearing. That number is around 31 lakh in West Bengal. After this, ECI will start scrutinising the voters with 'logical discrepancies'. Then it will be decided by the ECI how those notices will be generated," the official said.

In its letter, the officers' association acknowledged the Election Commission's constitutional authority to issue directions but expressed concern that large-scale deletions carried out without statutory safeguards could undermine due process. It noted that "large-scale deletion of entries from the electoral rolls bypassing the mandatory statutory provisions entail a legitimate apprehension that the EROs are being accountable for the act of deletion while they do not have the opportunity to exercise their statutory responsibilities through quasi-judicial hearing".

The association further argued that system-driven deletions could infringe upon the rights of electors who may otherwise be eligible but were unable to participate in the enumeration process. "Further, the act of system-driven deletion of so many electors all at once appears to infringe upon the natural rights of electors who might well be otherwise eligible under existing provisions of the law yet, for some reasons or other, could not be present during the Enumeration process," the letter said.

It also pointed out that, at the stage of draft publication, several electors had already been removed from the rolls. "It has been found on the date of the draft publication that a considerable number of electors, whose Enumeration Forms have not been returned on alleged grounds such as death, migration, absence, or duplication, have been deleted from the draft electoral rolls," the association said.

More than 58 lakh names have been removed from West Bengal's draft electoral roll, released by the Election Commission on December 16 as part of the first phase of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the state's voters' lists. According to figures shared by the Chief Electoral Officer's office, about 92.40% of the existing electors have been retained in the updated draft, The Hindu reported.

As of October 27 this year, before the revision exercise began, West Bengal had a total of 7,66,37,529 registered voters. Following the SIR process, 7,08,16,630 names have been included in the draft roll, while 58,20,899 electors have been deleted. The deletions were carried out under the categories of absent, shifted, dead, and duplicate (ASDD).

Breaking down the figures, the CEO's office reported that approximately 24.16 lakh electors were identified as deceased. Another 32.65 lakh names were removed after being classified as shifted or absent, while 1.38 lakh entries were found to be duplicate registrations across multiple locations.