A time-tested system was dismantled in one fell swoop by the Election Commission, a veteran rights activist said at a protest meeting against the SIR on Wednesday.

“The presumption of citizenship is a basic tenet. An election model had been built brick by brick over 30 years. EPIC numbers have reached 90% of the population. We built a system — not without some problems, but a system nonetheless. Since the foundation was laid in the 1990s, it has been refined. But this time-tested and reliable tool runs counter to the EC’s current design to exclude,” Sujato Bhadra said at the Press Club Kolkata.

An EPIC is a unique 10-digit alphanumeric code assigned by the poll panel to registered voters. Printed on voter ID cards, it serves as a permanent and secure identifier for voting eligibility, online services and proof of identity.

“The EC has no jurisdiction to determine citizenship. It can check whether you are a resident of a constituency or if you have moved or are absent. But the EC cannot determine citizenship. The tribunal’s first ruling proved this,” Bhadra said.

So far, none of the 19 tribunals has heard a single appeal from an ordinary voter. All they have heard — under Supreme Court directives — are two special, urgent cases, both of election candidates, who have since been cleared.

Around 27 lakh names have been removed from a little over 60 lakh voters who were under adjudication. The tribunals are their last hope.

One of the 27 lakh was at the protest meeting. Faridul Islam, a voter from Panchla in Howrah, lost his voting rights because a prefix to his name was misspelt in Bengali.

“I have already filed an online appeal against my exclusion. I plan to write a letter to the President of India,” Islam said.

Such typographical inconsistencies have pushed many out of the revised rolls.

“AI does not know that Sk is Sheikh. It does not know that Bandyopadhyay and Banerjee are the same,” said Samata Biswas, assistant professor of English at Sanskrit College and University and a member of the Calcutta Research Group.

Wednesday’s meeting was organised by a collective opposing the SIR. Among the speakers was Moushumi Bhowmik — singer, activist, writer and researcher — who drew parallels between the EC’s SIR in India and the controversial actions of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the US.

“It is part of a larger global pattern. Many of us are being dehumanised. We are living in the darkest of times,” she said.

Bhadra also raised the question of the future of the multitudes who may ultimately remain excluded from the electoral rolls. “Let us assume the tribunals clear the names of a few lakhs. What about the rest? Will they be sent to detention camps?”