SIR: How notices will be served and where voters will face hearings

SIR: How notices will be served and where voters will face hearings Updated – August 20, 2026 10: 07 pm IST – Bengaluru.

Key points

• At least 2, 859 polling stations, particularly in Bengaluru, Kodagu, and Chikkamagaluru, still have more than 50% of their voters on the ASDDO list.
• While hearings will be conducted by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) or Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), the notices will be delivered by booth-level officers (BLOs).
• Between August 24 and September 23, the period for claims and objections will run parallel to the notice process.
• In case of an objection, a person can first approach the District Election Officer (DEO), the first appellate authority.
• The CEO's office has received a letter from a private agency flagging the details of 11 voters.

In practice, the notice will be published in both Kannada and English. Nevertheless, there is no way for a voter to check online whether they have been flagged for an anomaly. Photo Credit: File Photo.

Besides more than 1.07 crore voters flagged under the Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate, and Outstation (ASDDO) category who will be removed from the draft electoral roll, notices will be served to another 43.8 lakh voters. While hearings will be conducted by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) or Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), the notices will be delivered by booth-level officers (BLOs).

BLOs will go house to house to serve the notices. Any administration premises, such as a police station or a administration building nearest to the polling station, may be chosen as the hearing venue. A voter receiving the notice must meet the ERO in person, even if the documents are submitted online. A QR code will be printed on the notice through which a voter can scan and submit the documents online.

Meanwhile, the name, venue, and date of the hearing will be mentioned in the notice, along with the reason the person has received it.

Notably, a BLO will create only two attempts to serve the notice. If a person does not attend the hearing, the ERO/AERO will reschedule it "only once." Moreover, the notice can be served to someone on the voter's behalf – meaning a family member or, if no family member is present, a neighbour. Nevertheless, only the voter can and must appear for the hearing. "In case a person is hospitalised, then the ERO/AERO hearing the case should go to the hospital to conduct the hearing, " State Election Commission authorities stated.

It will take up to seven days to generate and serve a notice after the ERO/AERO initiates the process. There will be approximately three days between the time a voter receives the notice and the date by which they must respond.

Between August 24 and September 23, the period for claims and objections will run parallel to the notice process. During this period, voters can submit Forms 6, 7, and 8, and eligible names will be continued to the final electoral roll. The notice process, meanwhile, will continue until October 22.

In cases involving deletion – where a person does not appear for a hearing, fails to provide any of the 11 prescribed documents, or where their eligibility is suspected – the ERO will have to matter a speaking order. A Form 7 seeking deletion will additionally be generated. In case of an objection, a person can first approach the District Election Officer (DEO), the first appellate authority. If the voter is still not satisfied, they can approach the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), the second and final appellate authority. After approaching the CEO, a voter cannot appeal further.

Each document submitted during the verification period must be verified by the concerned district election official. For instance, if a voter submits a passport, the DEO will send a query to the passport authority. It has been instructed to respond within three days and confirm whether the document is valid. The DEO will then communicate the response to the ERO/AERO.

While a voter could previously submit any one of the 11 prescribed documents along with the SIR form, the CEO's office now states that the ERO/AERO hearing the case may ask the voter to produce a specific document if deemed necessary. Nevertheless, the ERO/AERO cannot ask a voter to produce more than three documents, including the Aadhaar card.

There are no clear grounds specifying when an ERO/AERO can ask for extra documents based on the circumstances of a particular case. Moreover, the verification process during the hearing is left to the discretion of the ERO/AERO. It means it could vary depending on the official handling the case.

While clarity has emerged on a number of other aspects of the process such as logical discrepancies, there is still no clarity on whether Permanent Residence Certificates (PRCs) will be uniformly accepted. The CEO's office remarked an ERO/AERO may not consider a PRC sufficient and could reject it. Since the decision rests with the ERO/AERO handling the case, the CEO's office stated it could not elaborate further, nevertheless.

Meanwhile, the PRC is one of the 11 indicative documents listed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and has been among the most contentious, with no categorical assurance on whether it will be accepted uniformly.

Meanwhile, the draft electoral roll, set to be published on Monday, will be published in more than one language depending on the area. In Belagavi, it will be published in Kannada and Marathi; in Kalaburagi, in Kannada and Urdu; and in the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) and Kolar limits, in Kannada and English. In the remaining districts, it will be published only in Kannada.

Meanwhile, the CEO's office has received a letter from a private agency flagging the details of 11 voters. The agency alleged that the 11 voters are foreign nationals staying in Bengaluru who possess voter IDs and other identity cards. The letter additionally included the Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC) details of these voters.

At least 2, 859 polling stations, particularly in Bengaluru, Kodagu, and Chikkamagaluru, still have more than 50% of their voters on the ASDDO list. Of these, one polling station each in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) North and Kodagu has more than 90% of its voters under the ASDDO category. Meanwhile, 2, 288 polling stations throughout different districts have between 50% and 60% of their voters under the ASDDO list.

Taken together, the developments around SIR: How notices will be served and where voters will face hearings point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.