‘No laws to publish list of excluded electors or give reason for their exclusion’: ECI tells Supreme Court

The Election Commission of India (ECI) told the Supreme Court that the Representation of People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, do not require it to prepare a separate list of people excluded from the draft electoral rolls and publish the reasons for their non-inclusion.

Deputy Election Commissioner Sanjay Kumar said in the apex court in a response filed on Saturday to a petition filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) against the Special Intensive Revision exercise in Bihar.

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The ECI further said that anyone whose name is missing from the draft voter list can file Form 6 along with a signed declaration by September 1, following which Electoral Registration Officers must hear them and give reasons in cases where inclusion is contested.

“As a matter of policy and in strict adherence to the principles of natural justice, no deletion of any elector’s name from the draft electoral roll, published on 1st August 2025, shall be undertaken without: (i) issuance of a prior notice to the concerned elector indicating the proposed deletion and the grounds thereof, (ii) affording a reasonable opportunity of being heard and furnishing relevant documents, and (iii) passing of a reasoned and speaking order by the competent authority,” the ECI said.

“These safeguards are further reinforced by a robust two-tier appeal mechanism prescribed under the relevant rules, thereby ensuring that every elector has adequate recourse against any adverse action,” it added.

The ECI informed the court that it shared with all recognised parties booth-level lists of electors whose enumeration forms were not received.

Earlier, the ADR had claimed that the ECI had not followed the practice of publishing a list of deleted electors, nor did it provide the number of deleted or included electors.