Karnataka SIR: Over 43.80 lakh voters to get notice; over 20 lakh flagged for ‘logical discrepancy’

After much silence over the most controversial category of “logical discrepancies”, the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, has identified more than 20.35 lakh voters whose enumeration forms are in this category. These discrepancies or anomalies have been identified under nine categories. 

Besides this, notices will be served to another 23.45 lakh people who could not find their own or their parents’ details in the 2002 electoral roll. Together, 43.80 lakh notices will be served across Karnataka, of which 24.05 lakh are concentrated in Bengaluru alone. 

What are the nine categories of anomalies?

The categories of anomalies include — a gap of less than 15 years or more than 50 years between a parent and progeny; a gap of less than 40 years between a voter and grandparent; different father’s names in the current and last SIR; a gap of less than nine months between siblings; more than six progenies mapped to a single parent; cases where, during progeny mapping, a parent who is also present in the current enrolment of an SIR State is considered invalid, resulting in anomalies for all progenies mapped to that parent’s last SIR record; different names in the current and last SIR enrolment; and different father’s names in the current and last SIR enrolment in cases of self-mapping. 

In cases where a different father’s name or a different name is mentioned, “different” can also mean just a spelling variation between documents. For instance, if there is a spelling mistake in a person’s father’s name and the spelling differs from what is mentioned in the father’s own document, that too will be flagged as a logical discrepancy. 

To be served by BLOs

The notices will be served by BLOs, while hearings will be conducted by the ERO or AERO. Any government premises, such as a police station or government building nearest to the polling station, will be chosen as the hearing venue. A voter receiving the notice must meet the ERO in person, even if they submit documents online. 

The name, place and date of the hearing will be mentioned in the notice, along with the reason for which the person has received it. A BLO will make only two attempts to serve the notice. If a person does not attend the hearing, the ERO/AERO will reschedule it only once. Moreover, the notice can be served to anyone on the voter’s behalf, but “only the voter” can appear for the hearing. 

The notice will be published in both Kannada and English. However, there is no way for a voter to check online whether they have been flagged for an anomaly.