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Three United Nations Special Rapporteurs have written to the Government of India raising concerns over allegations that the Election Commission of India's (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls led to the large-scale deletion of voter names and disproportionately affected Muslims and other minority communities.
In a communication dated May 1, 2026, the experts expressed their concern about the "large-scale removal of millions of names from electoral rolls through a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process led by the Election Commission of India (ECI), particularly affecting members of minority groups".
The letter was signed by Nicolas Levrat, UN 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.
Speaking on the large-scale deletions, the letter said many complaints had been made about exclusion from the roll, despite having provided valid identification.
“Muslim voters were reportedly disproportionately impacted by the SIR process. In one constituency, namely Nandigram, allegedly 95% of the deleted voters were Muslims, even though Muslims only make up 25% of the constituency’s electorate,” the letter stated, adding, "Muslim voters were reportedly disproportionately impacted by the SIR process."
The rapporteurs said they were "particularly concerned by the way in which the SIR process has been conducted, notably the reported removal of millions of voters' names from electoral rolls, potentially affecting a great number of Muslims and persons of Bengali descent, as well as other minorities."
The communication also raised concerns over the reported use of artificial intelligence during the revision process “that flagged 'irregularities' in voter data, raising concerns about transparency, errors, and potential bias”.
The letter said that the use of AI-driven systems in the SIR process risked disenfranchising legitimate voters, undermining democratic fairness, and raised concerns about the reliability of automated decision-making in such a high-stakes context.
The UN experts also expressed concern over statements allegedly made by senior government leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during the revision exercise, saying rhetoric describing the process as targeting "illegal Bangladeshi immigrants" risked conflating Indian Muslim citizens with foreign nationals and could amount to discriminatory speech under international human rights law.
The letter noted that both the communication and any response from the Government of India would be made public after 60 days or earlier if the government responded.
The UN Rapporteurs had previously written in 2018 expressing concerns regarding the National Register of Citizens and the Election Commission of India’s role in the exclusion of ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the electoral rolls.