BENGALURU: A civil society group has asked the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to step in and hold an open public hearing on the large-scale removal of names from voter lists across several states. The group, Forum for Electoral Integrity (FEI), says the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has unfairly deleted lakhs of names, targeting Muslims, Bengalis and other minorities the hardest.
In a letter to NHRC Chairperson Justice V Ramasubramanian, the forum expressed serious worry over the deletions. They want the NHRC to seek explanations from Election Commission (EC) and government officials.
The EC started the SIR drive to clean up voter lists, and aims to remove names of people who are not eligible and add names of those who are missing. The process began in Bihar and was later extended to nine states, including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and others, besides some Union Territories. Around 52 million names were reportedly removed across 12 states and Union Territories. In West Bengal, 9.1million names were deleted. In Bihar, Muslims (17% of the population) made up nearly one-third of the 4.7million deletions. Many people with valid ID cards and documents were removed. Some deletions happened due to small spelling mistakes in names. Women and poor people were affected more.
In some places, organised groups filed thousands of complaints (Form 7) against Muslim voters. The letter points out that in some areas, a small number of people filed hundreds or thousands of objection forms, many linked to ruling party workers.
The group also mentioned a letter sent by three UN human rights experts to the Indian government in May 2026, expressing worry that the deletions mainly affect Muslims and Bengali-speaking people. They flagged the use of words like “infiltrators” and “purify” by some leaders as harmful, and possibly against international human rights rules.
The Forum for Electoral Integrity has requested the NHRC to hold an open public hearing and listen to affected people; ask the Election Commission for details on deletions, including numbers by religion, caste and gender; summon senior officials to answer questions, including the use of an AI system for flagging names; pause further rounds of the SIR until fair checks are in place, and take action against hate speech or biased statements by public officials.
The letter was sent by MG Devasahayam, a retired senior IAS officer and convener of the forum, along with other retired civil servants, lawyers and activists. This comes ahead of possible further rounds of voter list checks in more states. The group says quick action is needed to protect people’s right to vote.
