A petition was filed in the Kolharpur Bench of the Bombay High Court seeking to quash orders issued by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar that deleted voters from Maharashtra’s electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The SIR is a nationwide audit that the Election Commission conducts annually to cleanse the electoral rolls, removing duplicate, deceased, or ineligible names. New rules introduced this cycle allow the commission to delete voters on a case‑by‑case basis, a process that has sparked intense scrutiny across the country.
Opposition leaders have seized on the deletion controversy, calling for the sacking, impeachment, and arrest of Gyanesh Kumar, arguing that the orders erode public trust in the electoral process.
A voter in Pune reports that he was removed from the rolls without any prior notice or opportunity to contest the deletion, underscoring the real‑world impact of the commission’s decisions.
The Bombay High Court will hear the petition in the coming weeks, and its ruling could compel a nationwide review of the SIR deletion protocol.