India's SIR removed unprecedented numbers of eligible electors, Rawat says
India's recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has led to a wave of voters being dropped from the list, with former Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat saying it was "the first time since Independence that so many eligible electors had lost their voting rights."
Despite 10 months of objections from Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, key changes went ahead, like tweaks to Form 6 and the ECINet portal's added declaration asking new voters whether they or their parents or grandparents had appeared in the last SIR's electoral roll.
Over 71% of voter deletions were labeled as "absent, shifted, or others," but in West Bengal, tribunals later found that 93% of the deleted voters whose appeals have been decided by the tribunals were eligible, and they missed exercising their voting right in the elections.
Supreme Court orders citizenship checks
The Supreme Court says the Election Commission can keep revising the rolls but wants some citizenship cases double-checked by other authorities first.
This might mean some people wait longer to get their voting rights back.
Rawat said he had to obey and respect the Supreme Court's order.