The Delhi High Court has ruled that Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls cannot be held responsible for verifying every detail furnished by an elector in the enumeration and declaration forms.
Justice Amit Bansal said the liability of a BLA under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act would extend only to information that the agent is capable of independently verifying.
The court said this would include checking whether the photograph on the enumeration form corresponds with the identity of the elector. A detailed copy of the order is awaited.
The ruling came on a petition filed by Delhi Congress leaders challenging a requirement imposed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) that BLAs submit personal undertakings certifying that they had verified the particulars contained in enumeration forms during the SIR.
Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president and former MLA Devender Yadav and DPCC Booth Management Committee chairman Rajesh Kumar Garg also sought directions that recognised political parties be given printed as well as electronic copies of the 2002 electoral rolls and the Frozen Photo Electoral Roll before the SIR exercise in Delhi.
The petitioners had challenged a clause of the ECI guidelines issued on June 24, 2025, insofar as it required BLAs to give an undertaking that they had personally verified the particulars in the forms and were satisfied with their correctness.
They had also challenged a communication issued by the Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi, on April 27, 2026, which reiterated the requirement.
The Congress leaders argued that verification of electoral particulars is a statutory responsibility of Booth Level Officers, Assistant Electoral Registration Officers and Electoral Registration Officers. According to them, the responsibility could not be transferred to political party representatives through an administrative direction.
They further submitted that the requirement had no statutory basis under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, or the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and effectively amounted to an impermissible delegation of statutory duties to private individuals.
On access to electoral rolls, the petitioners said BLAs needed the 2002 roll and Frozen Photo Electoral Roll to identify discrepancies, duplicate entries, shifted voters and other irregularities during the SIR.
They contended that merely uploading the 2002 electoral rolls on the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer’s website was insufficient, citing difficulties such as downloading problems, network congestion and unreliable internet connectivity.
