With these words, Hamela Khatun, also known as Hamela Begum, recalls the moment her world collapsed. A resident of Bhakeli Kanda in Darrang district, she grew up in a family of small farmers who survived on a patch of land along the Brahmaputra. Like millions in Assam’s char regions, river erosion was a familiar enemy. Their land vanished gradually, leaving the family impoverished and forcing them to migrate to Kerala as labourers.

Yet the destruction of their home was only the first blow. In 2009, the Border Branch of Darrang issued a notice against her under the Foreigners Act, accusing her of being an “illegal Bangladeshi migrant.” Overnight, a woman who had been born, raised, and registered as a voter for nearly two decades was declared a suspect. For Hamela, who had lived her entire life in Assam, the allegation was not merely bureaucratic confusion — it was a wound to her sense of belonging. The notice left the family shaken, terrified, and mentally shattered.

How help arrived — entirely by chance

In early 2025, as the family travelled to Bako in Kamrup district for temporary work, fate intervened. At a relative’s house, they unexpectedly encountered Advocate Abdul Hai, a member of CJP’s Assam legal team. With hesitation, they shared their ordeal — the FT notice, the years of fear, the absence of guidance, their displacement to Kerala, and the looming threat of deportation. Moved by their distress, Hai immediately informed CJP State Secretary Nanda Ghosh, who assured them that CJP would provide full legal assistance, completely free of cost.

This chance meeting, almost accidental, changed the entire course of Hamela’s case. For the first time in years, the family felt a faint sense of hope.

Hamela Khatun stands with CJP’s Assam Team

The Case Before the Foreigners Tribunal: What the state alleged

The reference against her — Ref. Case No. 294/2009, formally registered as F.T. Case 5861/2011 — was forwarded by the Superintendent of Police (Border), Mangaldai. It claimed that Hamela was not an Indian citizen but an illegal migrant who had entered Assam unlawfully. Her entire identity was placed under suspicion, and the Tribunal was asked to determine whether she was an Indian or a foreigner.

Crucially, under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act, 1946, the burden of proof lies on the accused — meaning Hamela had to prove her own citizenship, rather than the state proving she was a foreigner. For a poor, illiterate woman displaced by floods, this burden is extraordinarily harsh. Yet she refused to give up.

How Hamela Proved Her Citizenship: A lifetime of records, preserved against all odds

Despite years of displacement, poverty, and illiteracy, Hamela managed to gather a remarkable collection of documents establishing her lineage, identity, and continuous presence in Assam.

She proved that her grandfather, Jasim Mandal, appeared in the 1951 Legacy Data and in the 1960 Voters’ List. Her paternal uncles appeared in 1966 and 1977 Voters’ Lists, showing that the family has lived in the same region for decades. Her father, Haidar Ali, appeared consistently in voter lists from 1985 all the way up to 2025, establishing uninterrupted citizenship across generations. Similarly, her mother, Rupbhan Nessa, and her siblings were all documented in electoral rolls in Sipajhar LAC across the years 1997–2025.

Hamela also produced all her own electoral records from 2006, 2010, 2021, and 2025, each showing her as a resident of Mangaldai LAC. Alongside this, she submitted a residential certificate, a linkage certificate from the Gaon Panchayat, land documents from the 1950s and 60s, Aadhaar card, PAN card, ration card, bank passbook, and several other personal IDs.

In addition to documentary evidence, her father testified before the Tribunal. His deposition — detailing the family tree, place of origin, the names of his brothers and sisters, and his movements over the years — matched perfectly with every document filed. This consistency became a decisive factor in establishing her citizenship.

Tribunal’s Detailed Findings: A clear, decisive, evidence-based victory

The Tribunal, after examining every record, deposition, and certified document, delivered a clear and categorical finding. It held that Hamela’s forefathers were genuine Indian nationals, and her family lineage from her grandfather to her father was fully supported by electoral records dating back more than six decades. Her own voting history since 2006 further reinforced her claim.

The Tribunal found the evidence “reliable, trustworthy, and sufficient,” noting that there was nothing in the record to cast doubt on her claims. Her grandfather’s name appeared in the 1960 electoral roll, her uncles in 1966 and 1977, her father and mother across multiple voter lists until 2025, and her own name in four different rolls over nineteen years. Every link in her family tree was documented, certified, and verified.

Based on this, the Tribunal concluded:

“Musstt. Hamela Khatun @ Hamela Begum… is not a Foreigner/Illegal Migrant of any stream. The reference is answered in the negative.”

It directed the Superintendent of Police (Border), Mangaldai, and the Deputy Commissioner, Darrang, to take necessary action recognising her as an Indian citizen.

It was a complete victory — built entirely on evidence, consistency, and truth.

When the Order Reached Her Home: Relief after years of fear

On November 24, 2025, a CJP team comprising State In-charge Nanda Ghosh, DVM Joinal Abedin, Advocate Abdul Hai, driver Asikul Hussain, and local community volunteers travelled nearly six hours across rough, broken roads to reach Hamela’s house.

The journey was long, but when they arrived, they saw a sight that made every hour worth it — Hamela standing with a wide, relieved smile, holding the order copy that restored her identity.

She told the team, her voice trembling with gratitude: “You saved us by fighting the case for free. You stood by us in times of trouble.”

In a gesture of humility and affection, she offered them boiled eggs from her chickens and small flower seedlings from her garden — a heartfelt expression of thanks from someone who had endured years of erasure and suffering. She added, “I was worried for so long, but today I’m happy.”

As the team left, the sun was setting over the Brahmaputra, casting a warm glow over the green fields that surround her house — a fitting end to a journey that symbolised justice, dignity, and belonging.

Why Hamela’s story matters for Assam and India

Hamela’s struggle is emblematic of the larger issues in Assam’s citizenship verification system. Her case highlights how:

• River erosion uproots entire communities, leaving them without documents.
• Poor, illiterate women are disproportionately targeted and unable to navigate legal processes.
• The burden of proof under Section 9 places crushing pressure on the accused.
• Entire families with long-established presence in Assam can be declared “suspects” based on bureaucratic doubts.

Yet her case also demonstrates the power of community support, legal aid, and sustained documentation. It shows that even in a system stacked against the poor, justice is possible when facts are presented clearly and fearlessly.

Conclusion

Hamela’s story is ultimately one of resilience. She lost her land to the river. She lost her livelihood to displacement. The state tried to take her citizenship. But she fought back — through truth, documentation, and sheer courage. The Foreigners Tribunal vindicated her, reaffirming that she belongs to this land as firmly and deeply as her ancestors did.

Her journey — from erosion and poverty to legal recognition and dignity — stands as a reminder that citizenship is not merely a bureaucratic label. For India’s poorest and most vulnerable, it is the foundation of belonging, identity, and survival.

The complete order may be read here.

Related:

From Despair to Dignity: How CJP helped Elachan Bibi win back her identity, prove her citizenship

CJP scores big win! Citizenship restored to Mazirun Bewa, a widowed daily wage worker from Assam

CJP Exclusive: Homeland to No Man’s Land! Assam police’s unlawful crackdown on residents still battling for restoration of citizenship rights?

A Long Road to Justice: CJP helps Alijon Bibi reclaim her citizenship after 2-year legal battle

The post Washed Away by Floods, Targeted by the State: Hamela Khatun’s fight for citizenship appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Alarming scale of duplicate entries

According to Mid-Day, the SEC’s scrutiny shows that 4.33 lakh voters appear more than once in the rolls published last week. Multiple entries for the same individual range from two to an astonishing 103 repetitions, taking the total number of duplicate enrolments to 11,01,505.

The Commission attributes these anomalies to printing mistakes, migration, and failure to delete names of deceased voters. Booth-level staff have been instructed to conduct door-to-door verification, collect forms, and secure undertakings to ensure each citizen appears once and only once on the list.

A senior SEC official acknowledged, as per The New Indian Express, that the civic elections — mandated by the Supreme Court to be completed by January 31, 2026 — could face minor delays. Depending on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) progress on correcting the rolls, polls may be held by late January or pushed to early February.

Opposition-held wards show highest duplicate counts

Four of the five wards with the highest number of duplicate entries are from areas formerly represented by Opposition corporators, particularly from Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Nationalist Congress Party (SP). Two such wards fall within the Worli Assembly constituency, represented by Aaditya Thackeray.

The top five wards with duplicate voters are:

• Ward 199 (Worli) – 8,207 duplicates
• Ward 131 (Ghatkopar) – 7,741
• Ward 203 (Parel–Lalbaug) – 7,624
• Ward 205 (Kalachowki) – 7,585
• Ward 194 (Century Mill) – 7,584

As reported by TNIE, a senior BMC official emphasised that the “11 lakh figure” refers not to individuals but repeated entries, and that a citywide clean-up drive is ongoing. The rectification process, supervised by 25 Assistant Municipal Commissioners designated as nodal officers, will run from November 27 to December 5.

Aaditya Thackeray escalates charge of manipulation, flags “millions” of repeated entries

On November 24, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray met senior SEC officials to protest the integrity of the voter roll revision. He also submitted a formal letter to the Chief Electoral Officer.

According to the Mid-Day report, Thackeray told the media that citizens were “desperately waiting” to vote but were confronted with arbitrary delays and unexplained irregularities. The draft list — initially due on November 7 and then on November 14 — was eventually released only on November 20, which he termed a “deliberate strategy” by the government to influence upcoming local body elections.

He alleged that government-held wards witnessed minimal or no changes, while Opposition strongholds saw “disproportionate and suspicious restructuring.”

Thackeray also questioned why the list’s summary data did not match its detailed entries, and criticised the roll for not being machine-readable.

In a post on X, he described the draft as “absolutely disgraceful and unpardonable”, demanding immediate remedial action from the SEC.

Our exposé on the corrupt practices of the election commission and the vote fraud in millions has led the the election commission giving us a week more to further find the vote chori.

Our exercise is not to only speak about it or only expose it, we expect corrective action on…

— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) November 26, 2025

Key discrepancies highlighted by Aaditya Thackeray

In a detailed public note on X, Thackeray alleged:

• Over a million duplicated entries, with some voters appearing up to seven times
• 26,319 households showing more than 10 registered voters each
• Hundreds of addresses listing over 1,000 voters
• These suspicious entries, totalling more than 8,32,000, amount to “fraud, not error”
• Nearly 7 lakh voters with no house numbers or usable addresses

He warned that such patterns hinted at systematic manipulation, insisting that “one person must have only one vote.”

His demands to the SEC included:

• Extending the suggestion-objection window from 7 to 21 days
• Allowing bulk objections by political parties
• Deploying full Commission manpower to identify possible fraud

This afternoon, we called on the State Election Commission pointing out the absolutely disgraceful and unpardonable chaos in the draft electoral roll for the BMC.

We have demanded:
1) 21 days for suggestion/ objections, instead of 7 days
2) The Election Commission accept our… pic.twitter.com/u1pycrGLCB

— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) November 24, 2025

Growing anxiety over ‘elected unopposed’ trend in local elections

A parallel controversy has emerged over the sharp increase in candidates being declared elected unopposed, raising serious concerns about coercion and misuse of political influence.

One prominent example came from Angar municipal corporation, where:

• An NCP candidate’s nomination was abruptly declared invalid
• The daughter-in-law of a leader who recently switched from NCP to the BJP was declared elected unopposed

According to Times of India, BJP state president Ravindra Chavan then publicly announced that the party had already secured around 100 seats even before voting, triggering backlash from Opposition parties. They accused the BJP of pressuring rival candidates into withdrawing.

Supriya Sule flags “deeply worrying” pattern

As reported by TOI, NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule has written to SEC Chief Dinesh Waghmare expressing grave concern about this trend. She said Maharashtra has a long tradition of robust local democracy, rooted in the legacy of Yashwantrao Chavan, which is being undermined.

Her letter states:

• Capable candidates are being discouraged from filing nominations
• This climate is undemocratic, weakens local self-government, and violates the spirit of decentralised democracy
• In areas with no alternative candidates, citizens are effectively denied choice
• The SEC must conduct serious investigations wherever allegations of pressure or intimidation arise

Congress also seeks extension, flags ward-wise discrepancies

Following similar moves by Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray, according to TOI, the Maharashtra Congress has written to the SEC demanding a 15-day extension for filing objections to the BMC draft rolls.

In their letter,

• State president Harshavardhan Sapkal,
• CLP leader Vijay Wadettiwar, and
• MLC group leader Satej Patil,

stated that in several municipal areas, draft rolls were not properly divided ward-wise, and many names were erroneously shifted to other localities.

Related:

The Deadly Deadline: “I Can’t Do This Anymore”—India’s electoral revision turns into a graveyard for BLOs/teachers

SIR exercise leaves trail of suicide across states as BLOs buckle under pressure and citizens panic over citizenship

Haunted by NRC fears, 57-year-old West Bengal man dies by suicide; Mamata blames BJP for turning democracy into a “theatre of fear”

Pregnant woman deported despite parents on 2002 SIR rolls, another homemaker commits suicide

The post Massive duplicate entries in Mumbai voter rolls trigger political uproar; opposition flags “fraudulent patterns” and pressures SEC for action appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The first  day saw 11 witnesses give testimony of evidence regarding both genocide and ecocide, from the likes of Raji Sourani from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Dr. Omar Nashabe of Lebanon, and Maria Zendrera with the Global Sumud Flotilla. The proof of intent on the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s environment at-large, the destruction of all means of the ability to sustain life beyond the complete blockade, and the day-to-day impact on the Palestinian people was highlighted in the evidence delivered.

The second day of the Tribunal explicated on much of the same topics and included 5 witness testimonies. With the court in session, the prosecution began with the effects on women in a written testimony on Day 1 from Nadia Bakri, a feminist and human rights activist that served as director of the Women’s Affairs Staff in Gaza for 30 years before being forcibly displaced to Egypt due to the genocidal war. “There has been a deliberate targeting of women’s health centres and clinics in order to stop Palestinian people from reproducing, in line with Zionist strategy,” stated Suzanne Adely of the National Lawyers Guild, the Tribunal prosecutor representing Bakri.

The jurors then intervened with their own line of questioning to Raji Sourani and Dr. Omar Nashabe in order to clarify different aspects of their testimonies.

Sourani was asked by the prosecution about the recent historical precedent behind the UN Security Council’s recent vote around Trump’s ‘peace’ plan. He responded with, “There isn’t one word about the unalienable right of Palestinian people, the occupation is institutionalized, and supported more by the American presidencies who are involved directly with the genocide and supporting Israel directly. . . 30 years ago, we were extremely critical about the Oslo Accords which did not mention anything about ending the occupation and self-determination – and that was intentional.”

Dr. Nashabe added during his portion that it is not only a genocide or ecocide stating, “I’d like to reiterate that the ecocide and genocide is a fundamental part of this policy of total extermination. It can’t take place by just killing people, but you have to kill all forms of life that will allow the people to rebuild. It is a metacide, the destruction of everything.” Furthermore, he spoke about the schism within the United Nations due to this ‘peace’ plan and the deep crisis within the intergovernmental body, “What other kind of creative, destructive, violent tactics can [Israel] come up with now when they haven’t been able to achieve their vile, obscene objective? We are going through a crisis in international law never seen before – this is like George Orwell’s 1984 on an unseen scale.”

After the jurors’ line of questioning, the five witnesses testified on the stand either in-person, over Zoom, or through pre-recorded videos on the collective punishment, deliberate targeting of entire families, intentional blockades of food and water, direct targeting of farmers and fisherfolk by airstrikes and settler mobs, and even direct evidence of systematic repression and silencing of Palestinian voices by other states in collusion with the Zionist government.

Mushier Ek Farra, an activist and filmmaker that was in the midst of a project centring on the plight of Gaza’s fisher people until 2023, was the first witness on the stand. He spoke on the collective punishment inflicted in Gaza right from the beginning of the genocide, as soon as October 9th, 2023. He stated, “In one instance, 67 people were killed and 52 houses were destroyed to target a Hamas operative. That is collective punishment which even one of the accused [Joe Biden] has condemned.”

After Ek Farra, two written testimonies from Gaza – first a collection of testimonies from an activist, then a worker – were delivered by the prosecution. The collection of testimonies were procured through great difficulty due to the chilling effect from 172 journalists deliberately killed in their role of revealing the truth to the world. One of the Palestinian farmers willing to testify stated, “Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the land to destroy and raze it again, cutting irrigation networks, destroying water sources like agricultural ponds and wells, and shredding the remnants of the trees into very small pieces with massive machines.” In line with that, the testimony of the worker from Gaza illustrated the strategy behind this destruction, “The aim was to inflict the largest possible number of deaths and injuries among civilians and medical personnel to force them to leave northern Gaza.”

Three real-time Zoom testimonies along with videos of Palestinian farmers and fisher people conducted by a journalist who gave his own written testimony followed. Throughout the video testimonies, the strategy of complete destruction – not just of killing people en masse, but destroying the basic means to assure their existence – were exhibited throughout. In particular, the dire situation and sheer destruction of Gaza’s sole port was illustrated, compounding on the complete blockade that Israel has imposed, “The port, heavily bombarded with roughly 26 rockets on the third day of the war, was split in half. About 95% of fishing boats were destroyed. There is a deliberate strategy to create famine: the occupation closes crossings, blocks the entry of food supplies, and prevents fishermen from feeding our people.”

The real-time Zoom testimonies began with Mohammad el Bakri, an engineer specializing in agricultural infrastructure and board member of the Urban Agriculture Forum, “They have destroyed [the crops], there is nothing now. In the north and south of Gaza, all this land is agricultural land and Israel has not allowed anybody to access or reach this land. There is no income, there is no water as its polluted — the sewage water has gone into aquifers directly.” Founder and director of the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University, Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, added to this point in his testimony and illustrated how this is connected to the strategy of occupation of Israel in the West Bank as well, which has escalated to unprecedented heights since 2023. He stated, “In the West Bank, they are draining the wetland of the Hula, redirecting waters of the Jordan River to their settlements, and uprooting millions of indigenous trees to plant an invasive monoculture of European trees. This squeezes remaining indigenous Palestinians into “concentration areas” and refugee camps increasingly surrounded by environmentally damaging walls and military infrastructures.”

As the environmental aspects of ecocide and the many aspects to genocide aside from mass slaughter being thoroughly investigated, Dr. Diana Nazzal’s testimony touched on the devastating health impacts from the forced starvation, and hyperinflation along with targeting aid recipients as an aspect of the starvation. “The hair becomes thin and lost, the nails become brittle, the concentration and mental health of people become very poor, and their whole life becomes about how they can get their next meal,” stated Nazzal. “The hospitals would always prepare for when the Gaza Humanitarian Fund was providing ‘aid’ because children were deliberately killed – it was another example of using humanitarian aid to commit genocide.”

A kilogram of the following foodstuff had risen to these exorbitant prices, showcasing the impact of the complete blockade through land, air, and sea aside from the ecocide:

• Tomatoes: 163 euros in the North; 17 euros in the South
• Meat: 175 euros in the North; 95 euros in the South
• Flour: 1000 euros in the North; 90 euros in the South
• Sugar: 46 euros in the North; 40 euros in the South
• Coffee: 135 euros throughout Gaza

Throughout the testimonies around the massive destruction of Gaza’s environment, the massive loss of life and ability to sustain life, and the countless violation of international humanitarian law, the experts and witnesses all resolved that the true solution to end the horror inflicted by the Zionist entity is the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination. From the witnesses and experts:

• Mushier Ek Farra: “[Those killed through collective punishment] are people I knew who were not even part of the resistance, I would have supported their resistance, but they were just civilians. . . We need support out of solidarity, not charity. This is a political matter, we must extend our political support first and then sympathize. The same oil, mining, and timber companies destroying Gaza are destroying the rest of the world.”
• Dr. Diana Nazzal: “We want to have our land and right to self-determination and be left alone. We are able to build our own society but we aren’t given the chance to do so.”
• Mazin B. Qumsiyeh: “Only we, the Palestinian people, can challenge against our corrupt leaders and the occupation”

After the testimonies came to a close, the lead prosecutor – Jan Fermon – delivered his final statement:

• “I would say, from a broader perspective, we do have to say that this is even beyond genocide and ecocide–and that is metacide: the destruction of everything. I think that terminology is absolutely appropriate with what we’ve been hearing and witnessing. . . The liberation of Palestine is the work of the Palestinians. The work of the rest of us is solidarity. Nazism was brought down by the resistance of the people of the world. The US intervention in Vietnam was ended by the struggle of the Vietnamese people and the solidarity of the people of the world. Apartheid was brought down by the struggle of the South African people and the solidarity of the people of the world.”

At the end of the jurors’ deliberation, they delivered the verdict: finding Israel, the United States, and other complicit entities guilty of genocide, ecocide, and forced starvation – finding Israel as the principal perpetrator of these crimes and the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany complicit in aiding, abetting, and enabling the crimes found in the verdict. “Free, free Palestine!” rang through the hall, with attendees celebrating the decision, and committing to use the findings to exact justice and accountability in the streets through mass mobilizations and action in solidarity with the Palestinian peoples’ struggle for self-determination.

Earlier today, organisers and attendees of the Tribunal took a copy of the full verdict produced by the jurors to the Zionist consulate and held a demonstration. Representatives of the Zionist occupation refused to attend the Tribunal and subsequently refused to receive a copy of the verdict.

Throughout the two days of testimonies and evidence, the final guilty verdict of the International People’s Tribunal stands in line with what international institutions have also determined, but have either moved too slowly on or have wholly ignored. The verdict, based on a mountain of evidence showcasing Israel’s and US’s clear intent and exposing the ecocide rarely touched in the mainstream narrative, has put the power into the hands of the people to exact justice and accountability in solidarity with Palestinian people’s right to and struggle for self-determination.

The verdict serves only as a start. True justice will only be found through continued movement building and mass actions in the streets and in any venue possible if advocacy efforts will have any hope of contributing to justice and accountability. What the Tribunal proved is that true justice belongs with the people, and the people will fight for it until the end of all economic, political, military, and diplomatic support from Israel.

There will be more activities and campaigns in relation to the Tribunal in the coming months available for press to cover.

About the International People’s Tribunal for Palestine:

The IPT for Palestine is a civil society initiative organized by the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), International Peoples’ Front, and the Peoples’ Coalition on Food Sovereignty, with the cooperation of endorsers including the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) and Palestine Land Studies Centre, among others. It aims to establish a historical record of crimes against the Palestinian people, mobilize international solidarity, and exert moral and political pressure on complicit governments and international institutions.

Watch the full Tribunal recording here: https://bit.ly/IPTPalestineRecordings

Related:

Gaza: 700 citizens demand release of detained Madleen activists, call upon UK to fix Israel’s accountability for genocide, blockade, war crimes in Palestine

How AI mistook Chhattisgarh truce move as religious leaders’ appeal for Israel-Palestine peace!

Former DU Professor, Achin Vanaik, stands by his lecture on Palestine despite pressure

The post Israel, United States & and other complicit entities guilty of genocide, ecocide, and forced starvation in Palestine: International People’s Tribunal appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the country, says PUCL,  is an exercise that is leading to the disenfranchisement of lakhs of voters. Notably, the SIR in Bihar led to the deletion of almost 65 lakh voters. While lakhs of eligible voters, mostly women, migrant workers, Muslims and Dalits have, according to investigative reports by independent media, been “robbed of their right to vote in Bihar,” now, across several other states, people from across the country have expressed angst and fears of being deleted from electoral rolls.

While the constitutionality of the SIR is a matter pending in the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has hurriedly ordered for its implementation in nine states and three union territories: Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Assembly elections are scheduled for six of these states in 2026. The enlisted Guidelines by the ECI introduced new procedures, which were contrary to the gazetted Rules for Registration of Electors, and set new thresholds for proof of citizenship before being enrolled as voters.

Before the release of the PUCL report too, civil servants and citizens had demanded a “social audit of the ongoing process.”

Outlining the well- known process, the first phase of the SIR, ie, the enumeration phase began on 4th November, 2025 and is scheduled to be completed on December 4, 2025. In the enumeration phase, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are supposed to visit every household and provide them with a pre-filled enumeration forms containing the name, Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC), also known as Voter ID, address, details of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies and their photos. Voters then have to fill some details in this form, which will be collected by BLOs, who will give an acknowledgement receipt. The most important part of the enumeration phase is that voters are required to establish a link with the last SIR (2002).

Sabrangindia was among the first to do a detailed comparative analysis of the processes that the ECI has launched. Our reports may be read here, and here. Since then we have also been collating and publishing reports on the acute distress caused by the ongoing process all over the country. These reports may be read here and here.While initially it appeared that West Bengal was worst hit by this inordinate administrative pressure causing distress, across states including Tamil Nadu and Kerala –both opposition ruled—a trail of despair can be seen.

This first phase of submission of documents has been given only one month to be completed, which has imposed a great deal of pressure on BLOs. This has pushed several BLOs into severe health crises, and even forced some to take their own lives. Rinku Tarafdar (aged 52) and Shantimoni Ekka (aged 48) from West Bengal, Mukesh Kumar Jangid (aged 45) from Rajasthan, Arvind Mulji Vadher (aged 40) from Gujarat, Mukesh Chand Jangid (aged 45) and Aneesh George (aged 44) from Kerala are the names of the BLOs who committed suicide. The bereaved families have said to news agencies that it was due to the immense pressure they were facing in implementing the SIR. Several BLOs across the country have been admitted to hospitals due to sudden ill health, heart attacks, suicide attempts and cerebral attacks, which families have attributed to the tight deadlines and extended working hours to collect and upload enumeration forms. An NDTV report (November 25) said that nine BLOs have died in total, by suicide and otherwise, while Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP, claimed on November 24, that 16 BLOs have lost their lives. PUCL is appalled at the apathy of the Union government and the Election Commission of India towards the loss of so many lives, and the working conditions of the BLOs, despite several protests, resignations and letters communicating their exhaustion and the excessive stress they are under.

Ordinary people have also expressed their distress and frustrations with the process of SIR, fearing that they will be deleted from the electoral rolls. Jahir Mal (aged 30), Shyamal Kumar Saha (aged 70), Tarak Saha (aged 52), Bimal Santra (aged 51), Kshitish Majumder (aged 95), Mahul Sheikh (aged 45) and Pradip Kar (aged 57) are the names of people in West Bengal who were forced to take their own lives over fears of being deleted from electoral rolls.

It is following these widely reported instances in independent media and social media that PUCL reached out to activists and organisations in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh to collate the experiences of the ongoing implementation of SIR, and to document the challenges being faced by people in filling these enumeration forms.

Here is what the PUCL report documents:

1. Chhattisgarh:

At the end of October 2025, PUCL-Chhattisgarh put out a call, inviting everyone to form a new forum, solely for the purpose of addressing SIR-related issues. Consequently, the “SIR Sachetan Matadhikar Bachao Manch (SSMBM)” was formed in Chhattisgarh. In English, the name translates to ‘Forum to Raise Awareness on SIR and Protect the Right to Vote’. Apart from meetings to train volunteers and spread awareness, the Forum also met with the CEO-Chhattisgarh to outline the problems people are facing.

One of the issues in Chhattisgarh is that BLOs are required to visit each voter twice – to distribute the pre-filled enumeration forms, and then to collect them. This phase has been given only 30 days, but on ground, it is being done in a very slow manner. The Forum has also pointed out that given the length and breadth of the state of Chhattisgarh, and the lack of road connectivity with many remote villages in tribal districts, the SIR has been planned in an impractical timeline. However, the Forum has also acknowledged the tremendous burden being unnecessarily put on the BLOs, and have been consistently seeking an extension of time required to complete the SIR exercise.

The Forum pointed out that frequent realignment of polling booths since 2003 makes it very difficult for people to find their names in the correct constituency or polling booth. Further, it is extremely difficult for voters to trace their names and those of their relatives in the 2003 SIR voter list.

The Forum also pointed out that there is inadequate training and a lack of clear instructions to BLOs. Despite the Supreme Court clarifying that Aadhar can be accepted in this phase to verify the identity of the voter, most BLOs in Chhattisgarh have instructions not to accept it as one of the documents establishing validity of the voter. While the Guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India specifically state that no documents are required for the initial phase of filing Enumeration Forms, many BLOs all over the state are asking people for various documents at this stage itself, such as documents showing ownership of property. Not only is this causing a lot of confusion.  It is also discriminatory against those poor and landless people, who may not have such documents.

The Forum pointed out that many BLOs are school teachers, who have been pulled out of their schools for this exercise. This is having a deleterious effect on the school education of children. In Bastar Division, which has one of the highest rates of illiteracy and poor school performance, a total of 3,128 teachers have been employed in the SIR process, leaving many students in the lurch.

Additionally, the SIR exercise is being carried out during the peak of harvest season, where a large population of the state is engaged in the harvest of the paddy crop, which is highly time sensitive. This will be followed by the post-harvest activities of drying, threshing, milling and preparing the crop for sale, which is also bound to the schedule of the state for purchasing the paddy crop. This is the busiest time of the year for farmers, who form the majority of the population of the state. It is inconceivable why this crucial exercise is kept at this time, when most people are hard-pressed to make time for arranging their documents to complete this process.

The Forum has also written to the CEO fearing that a large number of valid voters, including women, will be unable to procure their documents from the limited set of 13 documents indicated in the enumeration form, leading to many unwarranted deletions

Another issue raised by the Forum was regarding the difficulties that people were having in submitting two colour photographs, as required. Many voters are in remote tribal villages, with no photo studios, or any other photo printing facilities. They are having to forgo a day’s wages to go to the nearest town in order to get photographs. In response, the CEO issued an order to all Collectors that day itself, affirming that photos are not mandatory, and if some voter wishes to update his/her photo, the BLO can use the BLO App in his/ her smartphone to directly capture the voter’s photo. This came as a big relief to the voters.

The delegates also showed the CEO some examples of enumeration forms which had wrongly been filled out by the concerned BLO. Taking immediate action on it, the CEO ordered that all forms of the concerned BLO and supervisor to be re-done, re-verified and re-submitted.

2. Gujarat:

Though the SIR was formally announced on October 28 and was scheduled to begin on November 4, enumeration forms were ready in many districts only by the November 10. BLOs therefore do not even have the entire one month for the enumeration phase. This time limit imposed by the ECI is one of the main roots of most of the issues.

Also, there was little to no efforts by the CEO-Gujarat, in ensuring awareness about the SIR process. Wherever the DEO and ERO were proactive, they collaborated with civil society organisations to get help in the enumeration phase.

Various civil society organisations have organized camps and written representations documenting the difficulties faced by people in filling the enumeration forms. In rural areas, BLOs took the support of many local organisations for the distribution of enumeration forms.

Though the Guidelines say that voters must be given duplicate copies of the filled forms, in rural areas and many towns, only a single copy of the form is being given to the voters. Therefore, a large number of people today do not have any copy of their filled SIR form.

One of the biggest issues is that the 2002 list of voters has not been made available in a searchable format. They are shared as PDFs in zip folders with unnamed files. It is therefore a mammoth task for people to go through hundreds of folders to locate their names. Due to a technical ‘font’ issue, the second link that was given by the CEO was not even accessible. People who had voted in 2002 could not trace their names in the list. In cities and towns, BLOs did not even have the 2002 list in hand. In metropolitan cities like Ahmedabad and Surat, after the exercise of delimitation, wards and booths have changed, leading to frustration among people about non-searchable lists of 2002. Also, the provision to fill enumeration forms online did not work because people could not find their names in the 2002 list, and because there were discrepancies in spellings in their Aadhar card.

The Guidelines also state that the digitization of collected enumeration forms must be done in real time. Till November 23, only 37% of the forms were digitized. Shockingly, the CEO announced in a half page advertisement, that people can submit blank forms by signing it and attaching a copy of their Aadhar cards.

Another issue is that BLOs are facing extreme pressure from the EROs, supervisors and political party representatives. Nine of them told PUCL that they were asked to fill the form on behalf of the people who had migrated to another place long ago. They are also facing difficulty collecting the filled forms from people. They are required to work after 6 PM to upload the forms, but many BLOs are not familiar with technology and are facing internet and server issues. Women BLOs are facing several challenges, especially those who are pregnant and are forced to work for long hours, walk long distances in rural areas and climb stairs. BLOs are also facing the brunt of being answerable on issues of governance, as many people are treating them as representatives of the government.

In Gujarat alone, four BLOs have lost their lives, one of whom, committed suicide.

Overall, people are worried that their names will be deleted from the draft electoral rolls, and will have to undergo processes to re-register.

3. Goa –

The seriousness with which Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have been instructed to conduct the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Goa is evident. They have been told that this is a very serious exercise and that there can be serious consequences if anything is found to be wrong. Yet, on the ground, BLOs are visibly under pressure—caught between demands to include certain names and exclude others.

In this cross-fire, exclusionary practices emerge at the very first stage of enumeration. BLOs are found asking for documents that could potentially disqualify individuals. As anticipated, in Goa, some BLOs have been asking people to show their passports, claiming they have instructions to check whether a person may hold a Portuguese passport. This creates a serious problem: many individuals may not possess any passport at all. More fundamentally, it raises the question of whether the ECI has the authority to make determinations about citizenship based on information gathered by BLOs, without due process, and without the Government addressing the long-standing demand of Goans for special status through dual citizenship, in view of their belated entry into the Indian Constitutional framework. This issue is compounded by the specific circumstances under which Goans are enabled Portuguese citizenship notwithstanding their Indian citizenship, and by recent developments in Portuguese law, where registration of birth in Portugal is assumed to confer Portuguese citizenship.

Another difficulty faced by the public is the reliance on the 2002 electoral rolls as the reference point for the SIR in Goa. With part numbers having changed, many people are struggling to locate their names and details in those rolls. BLOs, by and large, are being helpful, but individuals should be empowered to check and be satisfied independently. The official website, however, is not user-friendly.

Booth Level Agents (BLAs) are permitted to accompany BLOs to ensure that the latter are not compromised by MLAs or ruling party politicians in the area. Yet, two practical issues arise: synchronizing the timings of BLOs with BLAs, and the tight timeframes within which the exercise must be completed. Moreover, the ruling or dominant party usually has the resources to engage BLAs across all booths, while representatives of other parties often lack such capacity.

If BLOs are to resist pressure, a transparent and consistent system is required—one that demonstrates clearly that each BLO has indeed covered all households.

The seriousness of the authorities is further reflected in the indicative list of documents provided with the SIR form in Goa. At point 13, it refers to the “Electoral roll of Bihar SIR with reference to 01.07.2025.” This raises questions. Migrant workers from Bihar, who form a significant part of Goa’s labour force in garbage collection, manual work, and construction, certainly wish to register their names in the electoral rolls of their constituencies in Bihar. Yet it remains unclear whether they have been able to do so in the recent SIR, and how this is going to play out in terms of their inclusion or exclusion in the Goa SIR.

4. Madhya Pradesh:

Seasonal Migration: Families missing during enumeration

The SIR survey is being conducted during peak migration season (November to March). Thousands of Adivasi families migrate to Gujarat, Maharashtra and other states for work. Many work in conditions close to bonded labour, making communication with them nearly impossible. Because entire families are away, they are likely to be marked as “absent” or “shifted” even though they are alive and eligible. Elderly relatives who remain in the village cannot handle the complex paperwork involved in SIR.

• Women likely to be excluded due to design of the process

Women who married after 2003 do not have their own names in the 2003 voter list. Unless BLOs trace the names of their parents or grandparents, these women cannot be mapped to 2003 records and will be excluded. The problem is even more serious in southern Madhya Pradesh because many women come from Maharashtra. BLOs are unable to access Maharashtra records, especially since SIR is not being implemented there as of now. This will result in a large number of women being left out of the voter list.

• Lack of documents due to historical displacement

Adivasi families already struggle to access education, ration, social security and healthcare due to Aadhaar-linked requirements. Frequent eviction, insecure forest and land rights and displacement mean documents often get lost or are never issued. The SIR process assumes that every family has secured long-term documentation, which is not the reality in tribal areas.

• Low literacy and absence of the educated youth

Most literate youth migrate for employment, leaving elderly and women behind. Low literacy levels prevent people from verifying whether the BLO recorded their details correctly, following up on notices or checking names in the draft list. This increases the chances that incorrect deletions will go unchallenged.

• Name mismatch problems

Adivasi names often differ in different documents. Spellings vary, surnames may not exist and even fathers’ names vary within the same family. A simple search failure by the BLO results in “name not found” which leads to exclusion from the list.

• Document requirements stricter than Form-6

Form-6 allows Aadhaar, PAN, bank passbook or driving licence as identity and address proof. The SIR demands stricter rules for continuing on the voter list than for becoming a new voter. This makes it harder for existing voters to retain their names on the list than for new names to be added.

• Digital barriers

Draft rolls and forms are online. Internet connectivity and smartphones are scarce in Adivasi regions. The 2003 electoral rolls are English-language PDF scans that require exact spellings to search. People are forced to depend on cyber-cafés or political intermediaries, creating space for exploitation and bribery.

• Survey will not reach all households

In inaccessible forest belts, scattered hamlets and remote areas, BLOs are unlikely to reach 100% of the households. Anyone who is not physically located will be marked “absent”, “shifted” or “dead” regardless of whether they are entitled to vote.

• BLOs are overburdened

BLOs are Anganwadi workers, teachers and revenue staff who already have full-time duties. They do not have the time to carry out thorough house-to-house voter surveys. This leads to incomplete and rushed enumeration.

• Institutional failures worsening the situation

Enumeration forms were supplied a week late in many parts of western MP, which wasted one quarter of the total enumeration time. BLOs were not provided Form-6 or Form-8 making additions and corrections impossible. Essential public services like Anganwadi nutrition, schooling and revenue work are suffering because staff have been shifted to SIR work.

5. Rajasthan:

Rajasthan has 52,490 booths, with an average of 1000 to 1200 voters per booth. Although in the city it goes up to even 1400 voters per booth. As of October 27, 2025, the day SIR was declared for our state, the total number of electors were 5.48 crores. So this humungous exercise had to be carried out at crash course speed in 30 days, one month.

Rajasthan had begun a certain preparation a while ago and in the month of August – September, BLOs were trained on the basis of the Bihar SIR orders. Later day-long SIR refresher sessions for BLOs were organised to clarify the changes from the Bihar orders, after October 27. Some of the most important changes were listed, that no document would be required to be collected in the enumeration phase. The 2002 voter linkage was not just of one’s own, but of any parent and the term guardian was introduced. Only the entries of the 2002 linkage had to be added and that new voters could fill Form 6 along with the process of Form 4 filling. It also stated that Aadhar could be used, as a document for identity, along with 2025 Bihar SIR as the reference for the Bihari origin people who were living in Jaipur. The 13 documents were mentioned in the guidebook for BLOs.

The CEO Rajasthan also announced that they had already undertaken the mapping exercise and that 71 % voters already had legacy established. About 15 to 20 percent of the voters would have legacy in other states and that it was the duty of the BLO and BLA to help the voter access their progeny in other states. It was also emphasised that married women would have to trace their legacy to their parents and not their marital homes. And that all the state voters list of 2002 was on the ECI website and that very easily it could be accessed. Those voters who were unable to fill the form themselves could use the online option of filling Form 4. Although it was also cautioned that when there was a difference in name and spellings between the Aadhar document and the EPIC number then it was better to give a hard copy as the online form would not accept the document.

The PUCL sub-report for the state that while these outlines seemed do-able on paper when the process actually started several issues emerged that are to date, unresolved.

The first breakdown that the PUCL team experienced was of the ECI portal. It would just not open. Leave alone accessing the 2002 voters list of various states. If it did by chance open on your computer, it was very difficult to open it on the mobile. This problem continued for almost ten days to two weeks. But it is smoothened out to some extent, yet very slow, when sitting on booths and trying to open other state lists to identify the 2002 legacy.

The other set of issues were more serious. An informal network of local groups working on SIR in Rajasthan and decided to hold regular zoom meetings and resolve issues in less than 24 hours if they came. A team of 10 people was constituted who were to respond ASAP to the problems.

The PUCL volunteers also worked with the de-notified and nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes within Jaipur’s walled city, single / abandoned and runaway women/ migrant workers colony, Muslim dominated areas, we also had massive complaints from the South of Rajasthan of Adivasi women, workers of all kinds, including industrial and informal sector workers and especially with the issues of out-migrants and in-migrants who were voters in Rajasthan.

Regular representations were sent to the CEO and individual Collectors and telephonic contact maintained with other officials. Little changes were seen on the ground however.

The engagement showed how the design of this process was to exclude and not include. It was contrary to all earlier exercises. Even the booth level workers were in agreement that it was an exercise of disenfranchising the poor, the migrant, the Dalit, the transgender people, the DNT, NT & SNTs, the Adivasis, women across the board. It was not just the poor that felt disempowered but also the powerful. Conversations with several retd. IAS officers led to realising how this exercise was a criminal exercise, impossible for many of them, because of the 2002 EPIC number entry. Someone’s daughter in law was suffering, some of them were suffering as they did not remember the booth they voted from in 2002, due to different postings.

Some of the key issues that have emerged from the engagement of the last 20 days are as follows.

1. Many Women in South Rajasthan, in particular in Dungarpur and Kotra, Udaipur district, have natal homes in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, were unable to find their progeny details of 2002 as they had no idea what the booths of their parents were. They had lost contact with their natal homes and therefore were finding it difficult to establish the 2002 entries required.
2. The names of the women in these regions change after marriage and therefore it was difficult to establish that they were the same person in 2002, if they were voters in 2002 on the basis of their maiden name. This would be a case like in Bihar, where SIR ended up changing the gender ratio in the electoral roles, affecting women adversely.
3. Married women everywhere were at a losing end, leaving the booth disappointed. Despite having a voter ID of their home state, of 2002, they were not able to access it to give it to the BLO. Most BLOs made it clear that unless they get details from E-mitra of 2002, they will not waste any time.
4. Runaway women, sex workers, abandoned women, orphans were at a complete loss. How do they establish their legacy? Even if over the years they had established themselves with cards, like a voter ID, Aadhar, PAN card, it seemed meaningless as they had no clue of their 2002 data, many of them wept that not only would they lose out, but their children would also not be accepted in SIR, as their legacy would not be established. The state refused to accept that people live in rented accommodation and had moved on to newer housing, without knowing their booth or constituency.
5. SIR was not accessible to migrants and labourers. With the data of 46.26 % Households in Rajasthan, at least one member migrated for work, which rises to 56.6 % in Southern Rajasthan, in the districts of Banswara, Dungarpur, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, Sirohi, Udaipur who migrate to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to work. Similarly all the big cities host a lot of migrant population from outside the state. The demands were clear that migrants leave soon after Diwali and change their SIM numbers in these states and are inaccessible. They would not return within the window of SIR and would be excluded. Even if there are members left behind, they too were struggling with the 2002 progeny mapping. The lists were not machine readable and therefore mostly inaccessible, the online voter ID and Aadhar linkage due to its own attendant issues of internet and different names, seemed out of the pale. Despite urging that camps be organised, except for one district, no other district organised camps for migrants. Both the industrial workers and unorganised sector workers said that they would not care to waste their time to fill the SIR form unless their jobs were assured as employers refused to give them time off. They would require at least two days to deal with the details of form 4.
6. The DNT, NTs, SNts and Homeless faced the most peculiar issues. They had no documents to establish that they even belonged here. Most had no legacy, since their parents had no cards in 2002. If at all they did make their cards, they found it deleted. Many had Aadhar cards, and we were telling them to fill form 6, but strangely, the form had a section asking for the 2002 entries of their parents/relatives. And if you were above 40 years old, the BLOs refused to accept their form 6, claiming that it was impossible that they had no card till now. The majority of course had no card, neither election card nor an Aadhar, as getting an age declaration was the toughest. Authorities refused to accept their age affidavits, despite all formalities, secondly, many were just squatters. Despite the 2013 order for homeless people, where the BLO had to spend two nights in a Basti to assess whether the person stayed there to establish residence, the people were without any documents.
7. People living in the walled city were surprised to find that though they had never changed residence, (or even if they did, it was their parental home) they found their names deleted from the 2025 lists. And received no Form 4. They were extremely upset that they had to fill form 6 and become a new voter. We met many Hindus and Muslims who had lost their right to vote, despite having voted in 2023 state elections and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the majority were Muslims though.
8. One of the worst situations was of the BLOs. Most importantly, the people were not returning filled in forms. It was clear that they needed assistance, which is where PUCL volunteers stepped in. The entire paraphernalia of BLOs, Supervisor, AEROs would sit with our volunteers and interns and would collect the forms. The team states that they helped fill 300 to 400 forms in the camps that were organised. Through this process, the BLOs spoke of their stress. The husband of a BLO shared that she had a massive heart attack due to the stressful work and was admitted in the ICU. Although the election department had replaced her with two women teachers, they were nervous and did not know what to do. On the day of the heart attack more than 300 forms were to be still distributed. In the camp that was held in that area, the team managed to fill 200 forms. But 100 were to be distributed. They were all tense. Her total count was of 1400 forms, only 700 had returned.In another shocking instance, the SDM of Ramganjmandi tehsil, Kota District, sent the police to the residence of a BLO, who abducted him and took him to the SDM. He was questioned as to why he should not be removed. Another BLO added that the publishing of data about the number of forms that have been uploaded is causing an unnecessary competition between states and districts, and is leading to the BLOs facing additional pressure from their EROs. A Teachers’ Union representative shared that teachers have been made to suffer like never before.
9. Suicide and Deaths of 3 BLOs, did result in technical teams being set up to assist the BLOs, but the timeline of 30 days, is taking a major toll on the people’s health and also their relationships. Cases of Domestic violence, where women are not returning home till late, neglecting their children are galore.

With the 30 day pressure of finishing the enumeration and the overwhelming progeny mapping push, SIR is an exercise to delete and not include.

6. Tamil Nadu:

Firstly, the Tamil translation of the enumeration forms has left people in confusion, and many voters have left some portions blank, including ‘Details of Relative’. Secondly, it has been a massive challenge to locate the old voter lists and booth details of 2002 and 2005. People are unable to recollect the exact details of the booths from so many years ago, leading to incorrect entries, risking deletion of many voters.

Thirdly, BLOs have not received enough training. Tamil Nadu’s Federation of Associations of Revenue Employees went on a one day strike demanding the halting of SIR, because the BLOs have not been trained sufficiently. Fourthly, the uploading of Enumeration forms online is challenging for those who are not comfortable with technology. Even a technically sound person needs to spend at least half a day for the same.

Fifthly, despite almost reaching the end of the enumeration phase, forms are yet to reach all localities especially of Dalit, tribal and minority communities in rural areas. It may be estimated that at least 40% of the people are yet to receive their forms. Six, awareness campaigns and knowledge about the consequences of SIR are only being done in limited areas by some political parties and social organisations. There is insufficient advertising and awareness campaigns being run in the state, which may lead to a large number of unfair deletions.

7. Uttar Pradesh:

In UP, lakhs have not received the enrollment forms yet. This is extremely worrying as the 30-day phase for enumeration is almost coming to an end. Off the record, BLOs have shared that they do not know how to reach migrant workers. 30-40% of the people of the state migrate to other cities. In some villages, almost 70% of the people migrate outside. BLOs do not know how to reach voters who are not available in their homes. They have also shared off the record, that in a state like Uttar Pradesh, no BLO has the courage to complain and that the enumeration forms were provided much later than the start date (4th November). BLOs are therefore forced to complete the process in a haste.

Another issue is that residents who were on the 2002 list have shifted homes, and are not receiving the enumeration forms in their old place of residence or new. Many have reported that BLOs in their old addresses have marked them as ‘shifted out’, and BLOs in their new addresses do not have their names in their lists. For instance, a big settlement with Muslim residents was demolished, and had even approached the Supreme Court to fight for relief. They have not received their forms in their new place of residence.

A common issue faced by the people is that there are hundreds of mistakes in the spellings of their names and date of birth in their Aadhar Cards, leading to problems in verification for enumeration. Additionally, there are many people without Aadhar cards, especially disabled persons in rural areas. Many married women do not have EPIC Numbers or information about their parents, and are unable to establish their genealogy in the forms. In rural areas, we fear that there will be hundreds of mistakes in the family register being maintained by the Secretary, which will lead to several voters being marked as ‘doubtful voters’.

Another issue is that people are not being given acknowledgement receipts or the duplicate copies of the filled enumeration forms.

Finally, there is a rise of many middle-men, who are charging money to fill forms for marginalized and poor communities, who cannot do it themselves. Even BLOs are sending others to distribute and collect forms as they are unable to cope with the tight timelines.

While BLOs are picking up phones to guide or collect the forms, there is a lot of panic and confusion, especially among poor and Muslim communities, who are recalling the repression they faced during the CAA-NRC time.

(This is a report made public by the PUCL National Team:

Inputs by Shalini Gera, PUCL Chhattisgarh

Inputs by Pankti Jog, PUCL Gujarat

Inputs by Madhuri, PUCL

Inputs by S. Balamurugan, PUCL TN & Puducherry

Inputs by Albertina Almeida, NAJAR in Goa

Arundhati Dhuru, NAJAR

Inputs by Kavita Srivastava, PUCL National President and Mamta Jaitly, Vice President of PUCL Rajasthan

Related:

The Deadly Deadline: “I Can’t Do This Anymore”—India’s electoral revision turns into a graveyard for BLOs/teachers

SIR exercise leaves trail of suicide across states as BLOs buckle under pressure and citizens panic over citizenship

Pregnant woman deported despite parents on 2002 SIR rolls, another homemaker commits suicide

The post ‘Designed to Exclude’: The ongoing enumeration phase of the SIR appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The news of an Indian Air Force Tejas falling silent during an aerobatic display at the Dubai Air Show breaks something deeper than headlines can capture.

Aerobatics are poetry written in vapour trails at the far edge of physics—where skill becomes prayer, courage becomes offering, and precision exists in margins thinner than breath.

These are not performances for cameras; they are testimonies of human mastery, flown by souls who accept the unforgiving contract between gravity and grace in service of a flag they would die defending.

To the Indian Air Force, to the family now navigating an ocean of absence:

I offer what words can never carry—condolence wrapped in understanding that only those who’ve worn wings can truly know. A pilot has not merely fallen. A guardian of impossible altitudes has been summoned home. Somewhere tonight, a uniform hangs unworn. Somewhere, a child asks when father returns. Somewhere, the sky itself feels emptier.

But what wounds me beyond the crash, beyond the loss, is the poison of mockery seeping from voices on our side of a border that should never divide the brotherhood of those who fly.

This is not patriotism—it is the bankruptcy of the soul. One may question doctrines, challenge strategies, even condemn policies with righteous fury—but never, not in a universe governed by honour, does one mock the courage of a warrior doing his duty in the cathedral of sky.

He flew not for applause but for love of country, just as our finest do. That demands reverence, not ridicule wrapped in nationalist pride gone rancid.

I too have watched brothers vanish into silence— Sherdil Leader Flt Lt Alamdar and Sqn Ldr Hasnat—men who lived at altitudes where angels hold their breath, men who understood that the sky demands everything and promises nothing.

In the moment an aircraft goes quiet, there are no nationalities, no anthems, and no flags. There is only the terrible democracy of loss, and families left clutching photographs of men who once touched clouds.

A true professional recognises another professional across any divide.

A true warrior—one worthy of the title—salutes courage even when it wears the wrong uniform, flies the wrong colours, speaks the wrong tongue.

Anything less diminishes not them, but us. Our mockery stains our own wings, dishonours our own fallen, makes hollow our claims to valour.

Let me speak clearly: courage knows no passport. Sacrifice acknowledges no border. The pilot who pushes his machine to its screaming limits in service of national pride deserves honour—whether he flies under saffron, white and green, or under green and white alone.

May the departed aviator find eternal skies beyond all turbulence, where machines never fail and horizons stretch forever.

May his family discover strength in places language cannot reach, in the knowledge that their loss illuminates something sacred about human courage.

And may we—on both sides of lines drawn in sand and blood—find the maturity to honour what deserves honouring, to mourn what deserves mourning, and to remember that before we are citizens of nations, we are citizens of sky—all of us temporary, all of us mortal, all of us trying to touch something infinite before gravity reclaims us.

The sky grieves without borders.

Let us do the same.

Air Commodore Pervez Akhtar Khan

فضاؤں کے پار ایک سلام

دبئی ایئر شو میں بھارتی فضائیہ کے طیارے تیجس کے المناک حادثے کی خبر وہ درد ہے جو سرخیوں سے بڑا ہے۔ ایروبیاٹکس محض کرتب نہیں—یہ بخارات کی لکیروں میں لکھی گئی شاعری ہے، طبیعیات کی آخری حد پر، جہاں مہارت دعا بن جاتی ہے، جرات قربانی بن جاتی ہے، اور درستگی سانس سے باریک حاشیوں میں قید ہوتی ہے۔ یہ کیمروں کے لیے نمائش نہیں—یہ انسانی کمال کی گواہی ہے، ان روحوں کی اُڑان ہے جو کشش ثقل اور وقار کے درمیان بے رحم معاہدہ قبول کرتے ہیں، اس جھنڈے کی خاطر جس کے لیے وہ مر مٹنے کو تیار رہتے ہیں۔

بھارتی فضائیہ کو، اس خاندان کو جو اب غم کے سمندر میں ڈوبا ہے: میری تعزیت وہ ہے جو الفاظ کبھی ادا نہیں کر سکتے—صرف وہ سمجھ سکتے ہیں جنہوں نے پر باندھے ہیں۔ صرف ایک پائلٹ نہیں گرا۔ ناممکن بلندیوں کا ایک محافظ واپس بلایا گیا ہے۔ آج کہیں ایک وردی بے استعمال لٹکی ہے۔ کہیں ایک بچہ پوچھتا ہے کہ ابّا کب آئیں گے۔ کہیں آسمان خود کو خالی محسوس کرتا ہے۔

لیکن جو مجھے حادثے سے بھی زیادہ زخمی کرتا ہے، نقصان سے بھی زیادہ تکلیف دیتا ہے، وہ ہے ہماری سرحد کے اس طرف سے اٹھنے والی تمسخر کی آوازیں۔ یہ حب الوطنی نہیں—یہ روح کا دیوالیہ پن ہے۔ کوئی نظریات پر سوال اٹھا سکتا ہے، حکمت عملیوں کو چیلنج کر سکتا ہے، یہاں تک کہ پالیسیوں کی مذمت کر سکتا ہے—لیکن کبھی نہیں، عزت کے قوانین میں کبھی نہیں، کوئی اس جنگجو کی جرات کا مذاق نہیں اڑاتا جو آسمان کی عبادت گاہ میں اپنا فرض ادا کر رہا تھا۔ وہ تالیوں کے لیے نہیں بلکہ وطن کی محبت کے لیے اُڑا، بالکل جیسے ہمارے بہترین پرواز کرتے ہیں۔ یہ احترام کا مستحق ہے، نہ کہ قومی غرور میں سڑے ہوئے طعنوں کا۔

میں نے بھی بھائیوں کو خاموشی میں غائب ہوتے دیکھا ہے—شیردل لیڈر فلائٹ لیفٹیننٹ علمدار اور اسکواڈرن لیڈر حشناط—وہ مرد جو ان بلندیوں پر رہتے تھے جہاں فرشتے بھی سانس روک لیتے ہیں، جو سمجھتے تھے کہ آسمان سب کچھ مانگتا ہے اور کچھ وعدہ نہیں کرتا۔ جب طیارہ خاموش ہوتا ہے تو قومیتیں نہیں ہوتیں، ترانے نہیں ہوتے، جھنڈے نہیں ہوتے۔ صرف نقصان کی خوفناک برابری ہوتی ہے، اور خاندان جو ان مردوں کی تصویریں تھامے رہ جاتے ہیں جو کبھی بادلوں کو چھوتے تھے۔

سچا پیشہ ور کسی بھی تقسیم کے پار دوسرے پیشہ ور کو پہچانتا ہے۔ سچا جنگجو—جو اس لقب کا حقدار ہو—جرات کو سلام کرتا ہے چاہے وہ غلط وردی میں ہو، غلط رنگوں میں اُڑے، غلط زبان بولے۔ اس سے کم کچھ بھی انہیں نہیں بلکہ ہمیں چھوٹا کرتا ہے۔ ہمارا مذاق ہمارے اپنے پروں کو داغدار کرتا ہے، ہمارے اپنے شہیدوں کی بے عزتی کرتا ہے، ہمارے بہادری کے دعووں کو کھوکھلا بناتا ہے۔

میں صاف کہوں: جرات کا کوئی پاسپورٹ نہیں ہوتا۔ قربانی کوئی سرحد نہیں مانتی۔ وہ پائلٹ جو اپنی مشین کو قومی فخر کی خدمت میں اس کی چیخ کی حدوں تک لے جاتا ہے، عزت کا مستحق ہے—چاہے وہ زعفرانی، سفید اور سبز کے نیچے اُڑے، یا صرف سبز اور سفید کے نیچے۔

اللہ مرحوم ہوا باز کو ابدی آسمان عطا فرمائے جہاں ہنگامے نہیں، جہاں مشینیں کبھی ناکام نہیں ہوتیں اور افق ہمیشہ پھیلتے رہتے ہیں۔

اللہ ان کے اہلِ خانہ کو ان جگہوں پر طاقت عطا فرمائے جہاں زبان نہیں پہنچ سکتی، اس علم میں کہ ان کا نقصان انسانی جرات کے بارے میں کچھ مقدس روشن کرتا ہے۔

اور اللہ ہمیں—ریت اور خون میں کھینچی گئی لکیروں کے دونوں طرف—یہ سمجھ عطا فرمائے کہ ہم جو عزت کا مستحق ہے اس کی عزت کریں، جو ماتم کا مستحق ہے اس کا ماتم کریں، اور یاد رکھیں کہ قوموں کے شہری بننے سے پہلے، ہم آسمان کے شہری ہیں—ہم سب عارضی، ہم سب فانی، ہم سب کوشش کر رہے ہیں کہ کشش ثقل ہمیں واپس بلانے سے پہلے کچھ لامحدود کو چھو لیں۔

آسمان سرحدوں کے بغیر غم کرتا ہے۔

ہم بھی ایسا ہی کریں۔..

The post A Salute across the skies, from Air Commodore Pervez Akhtar Khan appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Going further it reminds the public of how, in the recent past, Rahul Gandhi of the Congress provided evidence-based public exposures of deficiencies and manipulations of the electoral rolls in previous elections in Maharashtra, Karnataka and then in Haryana. This clearly required that the ECI make itself publicly accountable to explaining these discrepancies and otherwise investigate to identify the circumstances in which such frauds took place. As an independent body, it is the ECI’s responsibility to do so and certainly not that of the Central or state governments.

However, the ECI, currently headed by Gyanesh Kumar, has simply dismissed all these exposures, in effect refusing to make the ECI accountable, as it should and must be, to the Indian public. Even a former Election Commissioner, Ashok Lavasa, has criticised the current ECI on this count. No surprise then that there is the very widespread view that precisely such electoral manipulation has played a major role in determining the outcome of the Bihar assembly polls. Moreover, the ECI has failed at another level also. It has ignored a blatant violation by the Modi-led NDA of the Model Code of Conduct for parties during elections.

Towards the end of September, Modi launched a state government scheme to make bank transfers of Rs. 10,000 to women to start self-employment ventures with one instalment transferred on the date elections were announced and others made during the election process itself! More than a crore of women in different households benefitted from this. The total voter turnout, male and female, was a little over 5 crores. Previous such pre-poll cash handouts by governments have been halted by the ECI but not this time in Bihar.

This lure to women voters turned out to be particularly important for Nitish Kumar and the JD (U). The female voter turnout at around 72% was almost 10% higher than the male voter turnout and was a key factor in raising the JD (U) vote share by 4% from the last assembly elections in 2020 and enabling a seat tally increase of 42 seats to 85 in all. The BJP had roughly the same vote share at around 20% as in 2020 but increased its seat tally this time by 50 to 89 in all. Among the NDA’s other partners, the new Chirag Paswan led party the LJP, with its vote base among Dalits, got a vote share of around 4% and 19 seats. The Congress with double the LJP’s vote share dropped 13 seats from 2020 to achieve only 6 this time. The RJD got the same vote share as in the last assembly election of 23%, higher than any other party did. However, it’s seat tally dropped by 50 from 75 to 25 this time. The CPI(ML)-Liberation fell from 12 seats to 2.

Finally the statement asks, what then are the lessons to be drawn from all this? First, that in all likelihood there was significant manipulation of rolls favouring the NDA. Second, voters faced with promises of jobs and freebies of all kinds will prefer to have a bird in hand than two in the bush, i.e., a state party backed by the Central government that has already delivered a handout and is in a better position to give more, will definitely have the edge. Third, all parties share a consensus that SC Reservations must be preserved even as it may be extended to other sections. So why should Dalits prefer opposition parties to the BJP and its political allies. The material problems of lower castes remain but a small and rising Dalit elite that provides leadership is attracted to where power already lies. Moreover, in lieu of serious material improvement, the Sangh’s Hindutva ideology offers a form of cultural compensation to lower castes in recognising them and their religious deities and practices as part of a wider Hindu fold that is being seen as the natural heir of Indian-Hindu nationalism. Fourth, the Mahagathbandan (MGB) whether in Bihar or elsewhere pursues a soft Hindutva, does not directly challenge the BJP’s Islamophobia and itself reduces the number of Muslim candidates put up.

So, says the statement, it should not be surprising that in Seemanchal, where there is a higher concentration of Muslim voters, they would have preferred Owaisi’s AIMIM than to, say, the Congress. This is disturbing because it enhances religious polarisation. However, this can only change if supposedly secular parties are prepared to act in a genuinely secular manner. Fifth, apart from anti-BJPism, what does the MGB have in common? There is not and cannot be any genuine programmatic unity since apart from the Congress and the Left, the other regional parties do not have any Pan-India, let alone any international, vision or perspective.

Sixth, always a factor in the importance of cadre-based capacity of the RSS and its affiliates to entrench themselves within the pores of civil society as a matter of daily routine and not just for the purposes of periodic mass mobilisation which of course is also greatly facilitated by having this cadre base. The lesson here is for the Left and not for the other opposition parties that do not possess an ideologically committed and disciplined cadre base but have activists as part of more traditional patron-client linkages and networks that can also more easily shift their political loyalties. The Indian parliamentary left has a cadre base but one that is much smaller and more ideologically uncertain than in the past. Even for it to achieve electoral successes, the extra-electoral terrain is where the forces of the Sangh must be confronted through sustained struggles on various fronts.

Building a newer left that is internally more democratic and that sheds the shibboleths of Stalinism and Maoism for its cadres, is vital. Such a broader united front of the Left must not be sectarian within, and it must prioritise linkages with progressive movements of all kinds that continue to exist in our continental-sized country rather than with opposition bourgeois parliamentary parties. The latter are not capable of, and will never move in the direction of forging an anti-capitalist, truly democratic and deeply egalitarian society. This should be the goal of such a Left united front that is allied with a range of progressive movements. Forging a programme and practice of left populism as an intermediate stage in pursuit of that much longer-term goal is our shorter-term need.

The statement was released today.

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The NACEJ has strongly condemned, what it terms as “the abject failure of the Government in systemically addressing the air pollution crisis and the brazen, arbitrary detention of peacefully protesting citizens, students, parents, environmentalists, workers and activists, who are courageously organizing against this public health catastrophe.” The Chief Minister (Rekha Gupta) owes a public apology to the protestors and the people of Delhi for the government’s failure, unjust detentions and use of police force against peaceful citizens. The NACEJ has called for withdrawal of cases registered, if any, against the protestors.

The indiscriminate action by authorities not only violates democratic rights, but also blatantly disregards the dire health emergency faced by millions in Delhi NCR, as air pollution soared to its highest levels in four years, especially following Diwali on October 21, 2025, as confirmed by official monitoring stations. In the backdrop of the severity of the issue, the short-sighted, politicised response of the government will only exacerbate the air pollution crisis further in Delhi NCR. 

The group has also demanded that the Delhi Government, the Union Government and all authorities must immediately, without delay or evasion, recognize the magnitude of this public health emergency and the legitimate outrage of the people of Delhi NCR, instead of treating it as a ‘law and order issue’ or a political blame game. This unchecked governance failure-fuelled has directly led to record-breaking pollution, with hazardous air choking the region and pushing public health to the brink.

Besides, the NACEJ has called all for urgent, transparent, and scientifically accountable actions; not repression and diversion, to protect the lives, rights, and dignity of every Delhi NCR resident. The Government needs to initiate year-round air pollution crisis management, built on long-term policy preparedness and a prioritization of public health and justice. It is high time for political and bureaucratic authorities to address the rightful angst of the people, setting aside political calculations and vested interests.

Despite years of crisis and public outcry, air pollution remains a severe and escalating public health hazard, with Delhi NCR and several other Indian cities suffering the world’s worst air quality. This crisis causes millions of preventable deaths and immense economic losses, while disproportionately impacting poor and marginalized communities, outdoor and informal workers, women, elders, children and those living in congested or industrial areas. Government actions have consistently excluded the most vulnerable, widening environmental injustice.

What is most alarming this year is that, despite clear evidence and expert warnings, the government prioritised appeasement-based political interests over scientific and public health advice, specifically legalizing the sale and use of so-called ‘green’ crackers for Diwali. This move led to rampant illicit use of fireworks, ignoring the Supreme Court’s limited hours order, leading to its weak implementation. The result was record-breaking PM2.5 levels and a dangerous spike in air pollution, with Delhi reporting levels as high as 675 µg/m³ (CPCB data) – the worst in four years.In parallel, non-compliance and apparent fudging of data such as the reported use of water sprinklers near AQI monitors to artificially lower recorded pollution further erode trust and delay meaningful action. The persistent blame games over stubble burning also do not address the reality, especially since, in 2025, its contribution to Delhi’s PM2.5 was notably lower than previous years. Year-round vehicle and industry emissions remain the primary drivers. Delhi’s pollution emergency demonstrates a deeper governance failure where populist politics has been allowed to overshadow public health and science-led environmental policy.

To genuinely address the roots of Delhi’s air pollution emergency, the following immediate and structural measures are essential:

• A time-bound, transparent policy and plan of action to reduce air toxicity and fixing answerability and accountability of all statutory authorities, as per law.

• Pro-active promotion and comprehensive upgrades to Delhi’s public transport as a clear alternative to odd-even private vehicle restrictions. Odd-even schemes are not novel and have demonstrated mixed results, while similar restrictions already exist as part of GRAP. What is urgently needed is a sharp pivot away from political optics and towards policies that truly discourage the daily use of private cars and SUVs by improving public transport and reducing road congestion through measures like congestion pricing.

• Differentiate between public transport modes: A renewed emphasis is needed on both bus and metro infrastructure, as well as the neglected surface rail network, which can provide cleaner, more inclusive mass transit, if upgraded and integrated into a unified transport system.

• Implementation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lanes alongside metro enhancements, for high-frequency, accessible public bus services, rather than segregated bus lanes. Upgrading, expanding, and integrating these modes is essential for sharply reducing waiting times and increasing convenience for commuters.

• When calling for tackling vehicular pollution “at source,” new concrete measures are needed: leapfrogging to BS6 fuel and emission norms and promoting EVs are steps already taken. What is needed now is a rapid phase-out and strict control of all non-BS6 diesel vehicles in Delhi NCR, combined with the elimination of diesel fuel subsidies for non-commercial vehicles. Non-BS6 diesels remain a disproportionate source of PM2.5 and PM10 compared to petrol vehicles—despite diesel’s lower price, its use for private transport is now obsolete and counterproductive for clean air.

• Highlight the persistent neglect of Delhi’s extensive surface rail infrastructure. Investments and integration with bus and metro systems are urgently needed to maximize sustainable, mass transit and reduce the reliance on polluting road vehicles.

• Reference existing scientific source apportionment studies (IIT Kanpur 2023, etc.) that establish the root sources and their respective shares – vehicles, dust, construction, waste and industry, so that measures are not misdirected.

• A clearly statement that stubble burning is not a major year-round pollution source. Recent studies confirm its limited, seasonal contribution, while vehicle and industrial emissions remain chronic drivers of Delhi’s poor air quality. Victimising and vilifying farmers while subsidizing or ignoring much larger polluters like the automobile sector is unjust and must be stopped.

• A firmly implemented year-round ban on firecrackers and a credible transition plan for firework-industry workers. WTE incinerator plants, and all unchecked construction and waste burning, must be banned or relocated beyond residential and ecologically sensitive areas, given their toxic emissions. Scientific evidence fully rejects their ‘green’ branding while they continue to drive air toxicity and perpetuate health crises.

• Recognize innovations, but emphasize their futility when major pollution sources, notably ‘green’ WTEs and vehicular fleets, remain inadequately regulated and incentivized.

• Government must set up an effective and permanent mechanism for inputs from and dialogue with environmental, civil-society organizations and collectives.

• Government must release real-time, credible and accessible air-quality data and health advisories in different formats.

• Government must respond to peaceful protest calls with dialogue and not intimidation, threats, detentions and arrests of citizens and activists.

• People at large must reject any political or religious narrative that undermines or delays urgent public health actions in response to environmental emergencies.

In conclusion, the NACEJ has also called for a scientifically informed, health-centred, long-term air quality management framework for Delhi NCR and all Indian cities. This must feature enforceable bans on new WTE plants and place existing WTEs in the Red Category. Year-round prohibition on firecrackers, strict controls on construction and vehicular emissions (with a focus on outdated diesel vehicles), and a fundamental reorientation of urban, transport and industrial policy towards safeguarding public health are equally important. ‘Innovations’ and civil society efforts cannot succeed while major polluters remain unchecked and unaccountable, especially under the guise of ‘green’ solutions.

Addressing air pollution requires an integrated, inter-sectoral, institutional accountability approach rooted in public well-being and aligned with broader environmental, economic, and development goals. India’s future depends on putting public health, social and ecological justice and constitutional rights of all citizens at the very centre of all environmental and urban policymaking.

Signatories to the Statement: NACEJ Members: 

1. Alok Shukla, Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan, Raipur
2. Apoorv Grover, People for Aravallis, New Delhi
3. Dr. Babu Rao, Scientists for People, Telangana
4. Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran, Centre for Financial Accountability, Selam, Tamil Nadu
5. Disha A Ravi, Fridays for Future India
6. Dr. Gabriele Dietrich, Penn Urimay Iyakkam & NAPM, Madurai, Tamil Nadu
7. John Michael, NACEJ and NAPM Telangana
8. Krithika Dinesh, Legal researcher, NAJAR, Delhi
9. Medha Patkar, Narmada Bachao Andolan and NAPM, Madhya Pradesh
10. Meera Sanghamitra, NACEJ Telangana
11. Neelam Ahluwalia, Founder Member, People for Aravallis, Haryana
12. Nirmala Gowda, Mapping Malnad, Bengaluru
13. Prasad Chacko, Social Worker, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
14. Rajkumar Sinha, Bargi Bandh Visthapit Evam Prabhavit Sangh, Madhya Pradesh
15. Ramnarayan K, Natural History Educator and Independent Ecologist, Uttarakhand
16. Ravi S P, Chalakudypuzha Samrakshana Samithi, Kerala
17. Soumya Dutta, Movement for Advancing Understanding of Sustainability and Mutuality (MAUSAM) & NACEJ, New Delhi
18. Soutrik Goswami, Environmental Researcher and Activist, New Delhi
19. Stella James, Researcher and Independent consultant, Bengaluru, Karnataka
20. Dr. Suhas Kolhekar, NAPM & NACEJ (Pune, Maharashtra)
21. Sumit (For Himdhara Environment Research and Action Collective, Himachal Pradesh)
22. Tarini, Independent Filmmaker, Delhi
23. Yash, Environmental Rights Activist, New Delhi

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There is evidence that the Government is now going ahead full steam to pander to the advancement of these corridors, which have no demonstrated benefit to people at large, whether in Goa or in Karnataka. For a small state like Goa to have to lose its resources and become a ‘corridor’ towards the Corridor, spells complete disaster. Its air, waters, its rivers, its agriculture, its fishing and fish-drying spaces, its forests, its peoples’ health and livelihoods, are all under threat from coal dust and infrastructure being set up to make coal transportation through the port, roads, railways and waterways of Goa possible.   

The NAPM has also condemned the questionable legal architecture systematically introduced to facilitate these plans that enable corporate expansionism, even as existing laws and regulations around environmental protection, social impacts, land acquisition and rehabilitation are being violated.

In a statement issued yesterday, the NAPM has also joined the active people’s movements of Goa and Karnataka in resisting the reduction of the region to a coal transportation and corridors hub, and in their struggles to safeguard the ecology, livelihoods and people’s well-being, for current and future generations.

Goans have been demanding the de-notification of the rivers of Goa, which have been declared as National Waterways under the National Waterways Act, 2016. Similarly protesters have been demanding stoppage of the railway double-tracking project and return of lands acquired through draconian legislation.

NAPM further calls for an immediate halt to port expansion, by respecting the will of the people as even articulated in the public hearings in Mormugao taluka.

The people of Goa held a Chalo Lohia Maidan mass protest on Sunday November 9 in Goa.

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Announcing this, senior High Court advocate Anand Yagnik, who heads the Gujarat chapter of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), said that a committee has already been formed to examine the pros and cons of SIR. “While the SIR exercise began in Gujarat on November 4 and is scheduled to continue for a month, we will file a supporting petition in the case against SIR in the Gujarat High Court or the Supreme Court after observing how it proceeds in the state,” he said.

Yagnik’s announcement followed senior advocate Shahrukh Alam—who is arguing the SIR case in the Supreme Court—urging Gujarat’s civil society to also file a petition. She said there was an urgent need to create public awareness and build pressure against SIR, especially in the apex court, and that this could only be achieved if petitions were filed from different states.

Supporting the view of Gujarat activists that SIR is an exercise aimed at excluding marginalized sections from the electoral rolls, Alam said that the SIR, which began ahead of the Bihar elections despite a revision having already taken place in January, should be seen against the backdrop of an overall attack on democracy, freedom of speech, and the Constitution itself. However, she regretted that the political class remains “largely indifferent” to what is happening.

According to Alam, “We must remember that the space for free speech is shrinking—universities are cancelling lectures and refusing discussions. The state is seeking to decide everything: what to wear, what to eat, whom to marry. Exercises like the UCC, NRC, and actions around Waqf are all about the state deciding your identity. Today, state endorsement has become essential for everything. We are living as if in an open jail.”

Continuing, Alam said that in the same vein, it is now the state that seeks to decide whether one is a voter or not. “Civil society must take up the larger issues around SIR. Voting is based on the universal adult franchise, and it has always been the state’s job to ensure that no eligible citizen is left out. But now, the burden is being shifted—citizens are being asked to prove they are voters by submitting citizenship documents. The state is abdicating its responsibility,” she said.

Alam questioned why the ECI spent a huge amount of public money to revise the electoral rolls in Bihar in January, only to begin another “intensive revision” within six months, allegedly to “purify” the rolls. “Who is accountable for this waste of public funds? The ECI has not been questioned on this,” she emphasized.

On the legal front, Alam noted that while the ECI has the right to create electoral rolls, problems arise when it makes it mandatory for individuals to prove citizenship to qualify as voters. The ECI claims it will verify this on the basis of 11 documents, excluding Aadhaar and ration cards. “The ECI cannot act arbitrarily,” Alam asserted. “The Representation of the People Act merely requests citizens to assist in creating complete electoral lists. For 70 years, teachers went door-to-door recording names without asking for documents. Now, the onus has been reversed—each resident must prove citizenship.”

Countering the ECI’s initial claim that SIR aimed to remove “infiltrators,” Alam said, “Only three infiltrators were found.” When challenged, the ECI changed its justification, saying it was to “remove dead people” from the rolls. “But even that proved flawed—instances of deceased individuals remaining on the lists continued. The Supreme Court has yet to hear the case, even though Aadhaar has now been allowed,” she added.

Addressing the meeting, Sarfarazuddin of PUCL Bihar, who played a key role in opposing the ECI, called the exercise “dangerous” and “without legal basis.” He said it began in Bihar on June 24, requiring individuals to verify that they were on the 2003 electoral list to remain eligible voters. “No rationale was given. The timing was deliberate—monsoon floods begin after June-end. Would people save their lives or their documents in such a situation?” he asked.

He explained that block-level officers (BLOs) distributed enumeration forms requiring verification from 2003. In the absence of that, 11 alternative documents were allowed—but Aadhaar and ration cards were excluded, while passports, school-leaving certificates, birth certificates, and residence proofs were accepted.

“This was designed to exclude marginalized communities,” he said. “The Manjhi community, for instance, has only about 10 percent literacy. How can they be expected to comply? Many people had to bribe officials to get documents, leading to rampant corruption.”

In an instance of how marginalized sections are being excluded, Sarfarazuddin said that an 86-year-old poor woman’s name was missing from the draft voter list, following which her widow pension was also stopped. “Women are likely to suffer the most because of SIR,” he warned. “The ECI requires parents’ proof as one of the 11 documents. How do poor married women cope with this?”

He recounted an incident in a Muslim locality where residents protested after their duly completed forms were rejected. “A schoolteacher acting as BLO called her superior and said, ‘You told us not to accept Muslims’ forms. People are protesting—what do I do?’ Embarrassed, the officer told her to accept all the forms,” he said.

Similar protests were reported elsewhere. Initially, 64 lakh voters were found excluded in the revised draft. Following protests and legal interventions in the Supreme Court, many were restored, but the case remains pending. “This will be a long, drawn-out battle,” said Sarfarazuddin. “The ECI knows it has erred, but it has made it a prestige issue.”

Mujahid Nafees, who heads the Minority Coordination Committee and is PUCL Gujarat’s general secretary, pointed out that thousands of houses of fisherfolk on Bet Dwarka were demolished, though residents had Aadhaar cards with those addresses. “No one knows what will happen to their voting rights now,” he said.

Another Gujarat activist, Pankti Jog of the Association for Democratic Reforms, questioned how the ECI plans to “purify” electoral rolls amid Gujarat’s large-scale internal migration. Economist Hemant Shah asked whether the ECI’s aim was to prepare a voters’ list or to assess citizenship.

Courtesy: Counter View

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The Court, speaking through Justice Augustine George Masih (for a Bench also comprising Chief Justice B.R. Gavai), extended the constitutional and procedural safeguard under Article 22(1) of the Constitution of India—previously emphasized in the context of special statutes such as the UAPA and PMLA—to all offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) / Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Constitutional mandate reinforced

Reaffirming that Article 22(1) is not a mere procedural formality but a binding constitutional safeguard, the Court held that the arrested person must be informed of the grounds of arrest as soon as may be, in a language and form he can understand, and such communication must be in writing.

“…mere communication of the grounds in a language not understood by the person arrested does not fulfil the constitutional mandate under Article 22 of the Constitution of India. The failure to supply such grounds in a language understood by the arrestee renders the constitutional safeguards illusory and infringes the personal liberty of the person as guaranteed under Article 21 and 22 of the Constitution of India.” (Para 44)

The Court explained that the purpose of Article 22(1) is to place the arrestee “in a position to comprehend the basis of the allegations levelled against him,” and to enable him to “seek legal counsel, challenge custody, and apply for bail.” This purpose, it said, “would not be fulfilled by merely reading out the grounds.”

Written grounds in language understood by the arrestee

Drawing from Harikisan v. State of Maharashtra and Lallubhai Jogibhai Patel v. Union of India, the Court held that written grounds must be furnished in the language understood by the person, not merely read out or translated orally.

“The mode of communicating the grounds of arrest must be such that it effectively serves the intended purpose as envisioned under the Constitution of India which is to enable the arrested person to get legal counsel, oppose the remand and effectively defend himself by exercising his rights and safeguards as provided in law. The grounds of arrest must be provided to the arrestee in such a manner that sufficient knowledge of facts constituting grounds is imparted and communicated to the arrested person effectively in a language which he/she understands. The mode of communication ought to be such that it must achieve the intended purpose of the constitutional safeguard.” (Para 45)

Reiterating this, the Bench added:

“There is no harm in providing the grounds of arrest in writing in the language the arrestee understands, this approach would not only fulfil the true intent of the constitutional mandate but will also be beneficial for the investigating agency to prove that the grounds of arrest were informed to the arrestee when a challenge is made to the arrest on the plea of non-furnishing of the grounds of arrest.” (Para 45)

Extension beyond special statutes

Rejecting the argument that earlier rulings in Pankaj Bansal v. Union of India (2024) and Prabir Purkayastha v. State (NCT of Delhi) (2024) were confined to PMLA or UAPA offences, the Court held that Article 22(1) applies equally to all arrests—without exception.

“Article 22(1)… casts a mandatory unexceptional duty on the State to provide the arrested person with the grounds of such arrest with the objective to enable that person to be able to defend himself by consulting a legal practitioner of his choice. This mandate of Article 22 (1) is notwithstanding any exception. This Court has made it explicit that the constitutional obligation under Article 22 is not statute-specific and it is grounded in fundamental right of life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, therefore making it applicable to all offences including those under the IPC 1860 (now BNS 2023).” (Para 39)

The Bench further clarified that the right to be informed of the grounds of arrest is fundamental, non-derogable, and absolute, and non-compliance vitiates the arrest itself:

“The requirement of informing the arrested person the grounds of arrest, in the light of and under Article 22(1) of the Constitution of India, is not a mere formality but a mandatory binding constitutional safeguard which has been included in part III of the Constitution under the head of Fundamental Rights. Thus, if a person is not informed of the grounds of his arrest as soon as maybe, it would amount to the violation of his fundamental rights thereby curtailing his right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution of India, rendering the arrest illegal.” (Para 40)

Limited exception for exigent circumstances

While declaring the arrest in the present case illegal, the Court carved out a narrow operational exception: where arresting officers are confronted with offences occurring in their presence (for instance, a murder or assault in progress), oral communication of the grounds may be permitted at the time of arrest, provided that written grounds are supplied within a reasonable time and, in any event, at least two hours before the arrestee’s production before the magistrate for remand.

“However, in exceptional circumstances such as offences against body or property committed in flagrante delicto, where informing the grounds of arrest in writing on arrest is rendered impractical, it shall be sufficient for the police officer or other person making the arrest to orally convey the same to the person at the time of arrest. Later, a written copy of grounds of arrest must be supplied to the arrested person within a reasonable time and in no event later than two hours prior to production of the arrestee before the magistrate for remand proceedings. The remand papers shall contain the grounds of arrest and in case there is delay in supply thereof, a note indicating a cause for it be included for the information of the magistrate.” (Para 52)

This two-hour threshold, the Court noted, ensures a functional balance between safeguarding personal liberty and allowing police to perform their duties without procedural paralysis.

“The two-hour threshold before production for remand thus strikes a judicious balance between safeguarding the arrestee’s constitutional rights under Article 22(1) and preserving the operational continuity of criminal investigations.” (Para 53)

Consequences of non-compliance

In unequivocal terms, the Bench held that failure to provide written grounds of arrest in a language understood by the arrestee renders both the arrest and the subsequent remand illegal, entitling the person to immediate release.

Summarising its conclusions, the Court laid down the following binding directions:

1. The constitutional mandate of informing the arrestee of the grounds of arrest applies to all offences under all statutes, including IPC/BNS.
2. The grounds must be communicated in writing and in the language understood by the arrestee.
3. If it is not possible to supply written grounds immediately, they may be communicated orally, but must be furnished in writing within a reasonable time and at least two hours before production for remand.
4. Non-compliance renders the arrest and subsequent remand illegal, and the person “shall be entitled to be set at liberty.”

Significance and Broader Impact

This ruling is one of the most significant expansions of procedural due process under Article 21 and 22 in recent years. It builds on Pankaj Bansal (2023), Prabir Purkayastha (2024), and Vihaan Kumar v. State of Haryana (2025), which strengthened the constitutional guarantee of being informed of arrest grounds under special statutes.

By explicitly extending these safeguards to all offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and allied laws, the Court has now constitutionalized written notice of arrest grounds as a non-derogable fundamental right, comparable to the right to be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours.

“The Court further held that a copy of such written grounds must be furnished to the arrested person at the earliest without any exception observing that the communication provided under Article 22 and Section 50 of CrPC 1973 (now Section 47 of BNSS 2023) is not a mere procedural formality but a vital safeguard with the ultimate objective to enable the arrested person to effectively consult legal aid and be prepared to raise objections in remand hearing and apply for his/her bail. The right to life and personal liberty, safeguarded under Articles 20, 21 and 22 of the Constitution, stands as the paramount fundamental right.” (Para 45)

The Court also directed that copies of this judgment be circulated to all High Courts and State Governments for immediate implementation and compliance.

Conclusion

The Mihir Rajesh Shah ruling marks a transformative moment in India’s criminal procedure jurisprudence, ensuring that constitutional guarantees of personal liberty are not reduced to hollow ritual. It affirms that an arrest made without written grounds—especially when not communicated in a language understood by the arrestee—is no arrest in the eyes of the Constitution.

“The genesis of informing the grounds of arrest to a person flows from the Constitutional safeguard provided in Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which reads “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law”. The expression ‘personal liberty’ has been given a wide meaning through various judicial pronouncements. One of which is that personal liberty includes procedural safeguards from the abuse of power by the State agencies and scrutiny of the actions of the State.” (Para 17)

The complete judgment may be read here.

Related:

Allahabad HC grants bail in UAPA case over WhatsApp video; raises questions on overuse of stringent national security laws

SC intervenes for personal liberty after HC adjourns a bail application 27 times!

SC’s denial of bail to journalist Rupesh Singh once again showcases how the Court looks at bail under UAPA, with varying consistency

Examining Jurisprudential Shifts: The Evolution of Bail Provisions Under PMLA – Part II”

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