Three United Nations Special Rapporteurs have written to the Government of India expressing concerns over the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging that the exercise may have disproportionately affected Muslims, people of Bengali origin and other minority communities while raising questions about transparency and due process.
The communication, dated May 1, 2026, was sent by the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.
Under established UN procedures, the Government of India was given 60 days to respond before the communication was made public.
The experts said they were concerned by reports of what they described as the "large-scale removal of millions of names" from electoral rolls through the SIR process conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI), particularly affecting members of minority communities.
According to the communication, the voter revision exercise allegedly relied on AI-assisted systems whose functioning lacked transparency. The rapporteurs also raised concerns that voters were given insufficient time to furnish the required documents, that effective appeal mechanisms were lacking, and that minor discrepancies, including spelling variations in names, were reportedly used as grounds for deleting entries from electoral rolls.
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The UN experts said they were particularly concerned that eligible voters may have been wrongly excluded from participating in elections, potentially affecting the exercise of democratic rights.
The communication referred to reports from West Bengal, alleging that Muslim voters were disproportionately affected during the revision process. It cited claims that in Nandigram constituency, around 95 per cent of deleted voters were Muslims, although the community constitutes about 25 per cent of the electorate.
The letter also referred to concerns raised over the electoral roll revision exercise in Bihar, where reports suggested the process could lead to the disenfranchisement of Muslims and other minority groups. It further noted allegations that an AI-driven system was used to identify irregularities in voter data, raising concerns over possible errors, bias and the absence of transparency.
The Centre has not yet publicly responded to the communication. The Election Commission has maintained that electoral roll revisions are carried out in accordance with established legal procedures to ensure the accuracy and integrity of voter lists.
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