Three Special Rapporteurs with the United Nations (UN) have formally contacted India regarding the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which reportedly removed 52 million voters and significantly impacted Muslim and Bengali communities, especially in West Bengal. In a communication dated May 1, 2026, the experts have highlighted allegations that Bengali and Muslim electors were targeted during electoral roll revision and have also asked for details of steps taken to ensure eligible voters were not prevented from voting in 2026 Assembly polls. UN experts have stated that the use of automated AI deletions, coupled with political rhetoric such as ‘Detect, Delete and Deport’, raises serious questions concerning democratic fairness, minority rights, and compliance with international human rights law
The UN communication points to reports showing that the Home Minister presented the electoral updates before Parliament using the policy formula “Detect, Delete and Deport”. The text also notes that senior leadership repeatedly used this framing, describing the SIR as a process to “‘purify’ electoral rolls of infiltrators”.
The joint letter was sent by Nicolas Levrat, Special Rapporteur on minority issues; Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; and Nazila Ghanea, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. Operating under Human Rights Council mandates, the experts requested explanations from the Indian government regarding actions that may amount to “serious violations of multiple human rights obligations”.
The scope of the ‘Special Intensive Revision’
The inquiry by UN experts centres on the large geographic scale of the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) voter roll update. According to the details sent to the UN mandate holders, the ECI announced a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process on November 4, 2025. This administrative exercise covered nine states: Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. It also included three Union Territories: Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry. In total, the revision applied to 321 districts and 1,843 Assembly Constituencies.
This updating process, which concluded its second phase on December 4, 2025, followed an initial revision conducted in Bihar between June and September of the same year. The ECI stated that the program’s official goals were to ensure that “the names of all eligible citizens are included in the electoral roll,” that “no ineligible voter is included,” and to maintain full transparency when adding or removing names.
Reports sent to the UN indicate that approximately 52 million names were removed from the voter rolls across the 12 participating States and Union Territories. The UN experts noted that the preliminary update in Bihar had already “caused alarm over potential large-scale disenfranchisement and denationalization, particularly of Muslims and other minorities”.
Detailed reports and complaints sent to UN experts led up to this. After examining the on ground details of the allegations, the United Nations (UN) has contacted the Government of India regarding the recent voter roll updates through Special Intensive Revision (SIR). In a formal communication dated May 1, 2026, three UN Special Rapporteurs have raised serious questions concerning the potential systematic removal of ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities from electoral registers, focusing particularly on Muslim voters and people of Bengali descent.
Impact in West Bengal and the Nandigram
The removal of names heavily affected West Bengal just before its state assembly elections took place on April 23 and 29, 2026. The UN communication notes that West Bengal was “particularly affected,” with a reported 9.1 million names removed from the state’s voter registers.
Individuals affected by the deletions reported being “wrongfully excluded despite having provided valid identification”. The communication states that “Muslim voters were reportedly disproportionately impacted by the SIR process”.
Data from specific local areas highlighted significant discrepancies. The UN mandate holders pointed to the constituency of Nandigram, where reports indicated that “allegedly 95 per cent of the deleted voters were Muslims, even though Muslims only make up 25 per cent of the constituency’s electorate”.
The affected voting population in Nandigram includes “men, women, and elderly citizens who are Indian nationals with valid identity documents”.
The communication also highlights that minor issues, such as “minor spelling inconsistencies in documents”—which are “reportedly common across India due to administrative challenges”—were used as the basis for removing voter names.
Additionally, the UN mandate holders noted concerns regarding the use of technology, specifically reports pointing to “the alleged use of an AI-driven system that flagged ‘irregularities’ in voter data”. The experts stated that using automated systems in this high-stakes context introduces “serious issues related to transparency, errors, and potential bias,” which risks removing valid voters and “undermining democratic fairness”.
Official statements and rhetoric
The UN communication connects the administrative actions to the broader political environment and public statements regarding minority communities. The Special Rapporteurs noted “discriminatory rhetoric by politicians and senior public figures of the Government in the context of the SIR exercise”.
The letters state that the public comments “appear to reflect and reinforce a pattern of discriminatory rhetoric directed at Muslim, Bengali, and other minority communities”.
The communication also cites public statements from senior government figures, including the Union Home Minister, who “publicly framed the deletion of voter names as targeting ‘illegal Bangladeshi immigrants'”. The UN letter states that this description “conflates legitimate Indian Muslim citizens with foreign nationals”.
The UN communication points to reports showing that the Home Minister presented the electoral updates before Parliament using the policy formula “Detect, Delete and Deport”. The text also notes that senior leadership repeatedly used this framing, describing the SIR as a process to “‘purify’ electoral rolls of infiltrators”.
The Special Rapporteurs warned that this phrasing “could amount to potential incitement to discrimination within the meaning of article 20(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)”. This article prohibits the advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred that leads to incitement, hostility, or discrimination.
The UN experts stated that this language functions to “construct Muslim citizens as presumptively foreign, criminal and undeserving of civic rights, without any individualized determination of their legal status”. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief reiterated that religious groups “must not be instrumentalised to incite hatred and violence, including for electoral purposes or political gains”.
The UN concluded that basing a state-run voter update on the removal of a specific religious group “risks constituting, at minimum, an official endorsement of discriminatory attitudes toward Muslim citizens,” and could represent the “instrumentalisation of State administrative machinery for the purpose of political targeting of a religious minority”.
The appeals process and judicial timelines
The UN letter reviewed the legal avenues available to affected citizens and how tight deadlines impacted the outcomes. Voters originally sought recourse through the ECI and filed petitions for judicial review with the Supreme Court of India. On April 6, 2026, the Supreme Court declined to put a stay on the revision process.
On April 16, 2026, the Supreme Court utilised its special powers under Article 142 of the Constitution. The Court ruled that removed voters in West Bengal could restore their names if their appeals were approved by appellate tribunals by the deadlines of April 21 and April 27, 2026. The ECI was directed to update supplementary lists for these individuals, but the Court specified that “those with pending appeals would not be allowed to vote”.
The UN experts expressed concern over the logistical challenges of this legal remedy. The revision exercise led to more than 3.4 million appeals. The UN observed that “the short timeframe and sheer scale of the appeals meant to be resolved before the deadlines set by the Court… appear to have led to the exclusion of millions of eligible citizens from the elections in West Bengal”. The pressure on tribunals to process millions of cases in a few days left many voters without a resolved appeal before the voting deadlines.
Alignment with international human rights law
The UN mandate holders evaluated these events against international treaties that India has ratified, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ratified on April 10, 1979, and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), ratified on December 3, 1968.
The annex to the communication outlines these specific standards. Article 27 of the ICCPR states that ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities have the right “to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language”. The 1992 Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities similarly requires nations to protect minority identities and ensure their participation in public life without discrimination.
Furthermore, Article 25 of the ICCPR guarantees citizens the right to participate in public affairs and vote in periodic elections “without unreasonable restrictions” and without religious distinctions. The Human Rights Committee’s General Comment No. 25 (1996) states that voter registration processes must be facilitated, objective, reasonable, and non-discriminatory.
The UN expressed “grave concern that the SIR process of electoral rolls conducted by the ECI in West Bengal appears to have imposed conditions and procedural burdens that were neither reasonable nor proportionate, and which have disproportionately impacted Muslim citizens”. They noted that the tight timelines, the “opacity of the algorithmic methodology employed,” and the barriers faced by economically and linguistically vulnerable voters combined to form unreasonable restrictions on voting rights.
Specific questions put forward by the UN
The communication asks the Indian Government to provide detailed observations on seven specific points:
“1. Please provide any additional information and any comment you may have on the above-mentioned allegations.
- Please provide detailed information on any steps your Excellency’s Government may have taken to ensure that the substance and implementation of the SIR process, including the administration of the claims and objection period, complies with India’s obligations under international human rights law and standards. In particular, please provide details on steps taken to ensure that the SIR process has not resulted in the exclusion of eligible voters from their participation in the public elections of 2026.
- Please provide details on safeguards ensuring that members of ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities are not discriminated against in the framework of the SIR process and the determination of their voter status. In this context, please provide detailed information on the exact number of names that have been removed from the electoral rolls, during the SIR process, specifying the reason for deletion, as well as the number of objections and appeals filed in front of the various organs and the resulting decisions. Please also provide disaggregated data on the ethnicity and religion of individuals who have been excluded from electoral rolls, as well as individuals who have been declared ineligible after judicial adjudication. If unavailable, please explain why.
- Please provide more details about the “claims and objections” period and, in particular, whether the process ensured a fair and effective opportunity to contest exclusions, particularly in light of reports that millions of voters were declared ineligible after judicial adjudication despite presenting valid identification.
- Please provide details on measures taken to ensure access to effective remedies before the two-phase Assembly elections, which took place 23 and 29 April 2026, for all individuals excluded from electoral rolls.
- Please provide information on measures undertaken to eliminate any discriminatory treatment of minorities, including Muslims and persons of Bengali descent, as well as other minorities, with regard to the right to vote and to choose their representatives freely.
- Please provide information on measures that the State is taking to provide effective remedies to individuals found to have been wrongfully removed from electoral rolls and consequently deprived of their right to vote, particularly in cases where no timely remedy was available before the elections took place. What steps are taken to ensure accountability and to safeguard the affected individuals’ right to political participation?”
The UN provided a 60-day period for the Indian government to respond before the communication is permanently hosted on the public reporting website. The Rapporteurs noted they might issue a public statement sooner, as they consider the initial information “sufficiently reliable to indicate a matter warranting immediate attention”.
The Special Rapporteurs requested that “all necessary interim measures be taken to halt the alleged violations and prevent their re-occurrence,” and if the details are confirmed by investigation, to “ensure the accountability of any person(s) responsible for the alleged violations”.
The UN’s official Communication dated May 1, 2026 can be accessed from here
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