SIR: Notice hearing at 12 a.m., only Kannada notices and inaccessible BLOs leave voters struggling
Midnight hearings and language barriers leave Bengaluru voters confused and struggling with electoral notice processes and BLO accessibility.
Updated - September 07, 2026 09:39 pm IST - Bengaluru
The copy of a hearing notice received by a voter mentions the hearing time as 00.00. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
After learning that his entire family had received notices for being unable to map themselves to the 2002 electoral rolls, Vinod (name changed), who is based in Delhi while his family lives in Bengaluru, went to “submit documents against the notice”, only to realise that the hearing for his family had been scheduled for midnight, at 12 a.m.
Unable to comprehend how a hearing could be scheduled at that hour, he contacted his Booth Level Officer (BLO), but his attempts were futile.
Confusion and cases such as these have left electors across the city struggling to understand the process, with many complaining that they had provided correct details, but received notices either because of errors made by the BLO while preparing the draft roll or, in some cases, despite there being no mistake at all.
However, in most cases, people have been unable to reach their BLOs or Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), whose information is mentioned in their EPIC details as well as on the enumeration forms. This has left people rushing to ward offices and polling stations to find out when and where their hearings are scheduled and to collect their notices.
While the notice list is now public, the absence of details such as the hearing date, venue and time has made little difference for many electors, who are still forced to go in person to find out their status. Moreover, the lists are still not available at polling stations and hearing venues where people are going to check their status.
The notice list that was uploaded on the CEO website shows the folder as empty. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Moreover, after the notice lists were made public, they were removed for many districts and constituencies within hours. People could not access the notice lists at all. The same happened in Shivamogga and Yelahanka constituencies, while list for Hassan required access from officials.
Activist Vinay Sreenivas, who has been holding camps under the “My Vote, My Right” initiative, said his mother had received a notice citing a “logical discrepancy” because of a difference between her name in the current electoral roll and the 2002 rolls. The discrepancy, he said, was only a space in the name — for instance, “Suman Rekha” in the 2002 roll and “Sumanrekha” in the current roll. There was no spelling mistake or mismatch between the name in the 2002 roll and current roll.
Pointing to another such case, a voter in Rajajinagar said that the addition of an “a” had resulted in her husband’s name being recorded differently.
The BLO told them that the mistake occurred during transliteration from English to Kannada while digitising the enumeration form. The couple, both over 78 years old, questioned how they were expected to go and collect the notice, appear for a hearing and then figure out what documents they needed to produce. She said that even during the Election Commission of India’s special camp, she had contacted the BLO but could not get any help.
Many voters have also requested that either the full notice in English be made available online or, at the very least, a physical copy of the notice in both Kannada and English, as assured by Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer V. Anbu Kumar, be provided to them.
They pointed out that while the enumeration form followed a standard format and they had managed to fill it though it was only in Kannada, the notice contains different reasons and information that many voters are unable to understand.
Published - September 07, 2026 09:15 pm IST
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