Police Clearance Denied To Agniveer Aspirant Over SIR Deletion; Appellate Tribunal Gives Him Relief After Calcutta HC Nudge

An Agniveer aspirant whose Police Clearance Certificate (PCC) was withheld after his name was deleted from the electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise has secured relief from the SIR Appellate Tribunal, paving the way for the processing of the certificate required for his appointment in the Indian Army.

This comes days after the Calcutta High Court requested the SIR Appellate Tribunal to expeditiously dispose of the appeals filed by Akash Sarkar and his father, Faruk Sarkar, challenging the deletion of their names from the electoral roll.

Sarkar had approached the High Court through his advocate Biprojyoti Bhowmick after the police allegedly refused to process his fresh PCC application, stating that his name had been deleted from the electoral roll during the SIR exercise. The PCC was a mandatory requirement for joining the Indian Army after he successfully cleared the Agniveer recruitment process.

The State, however, maintained that the police could not issue the PCC until the petitioner's SIR appeal was decided. During the hearing, the State assured the High Court that immediately after the disposal of the appeal, the Police Clearance Certificate would be issued expeditiously in accordance with law upon completion of the necessary verification.

Recording the State's assurance, Justice Bivas Pattanayak disposed of the writ petition on June 17, requesting the SIR Appellate Tribunal to decide the appeals filed by Sarkar and his father as expeditiously as possible.

These developments come days after former Editor of the Telegraph, R Rajagopal, revealed that his passport renewal had been declined due to his name being deleted from the electoral roll pursuant to the SIR process.

Can deletion from electoral roll lead to denial of police clearance

The issue assumes significance in light of the Supreme Court's recent rulings on the legal consequences of SIR. While upholding the Election Commission's power to undertake a limited scrutiny of citizenship for electoral purposes, the Court has made it clear that deletion from the electoral roll is not a declaration that a person is not an Indian citizen, and that any such determination can only be made by the competent authority under the Citizenship Act. The Supreme Court further clarified that the Election Commission's exercise has consequences only for electoral rolls and does not conclusively determine citizenship.

Against this backdrop, the withholding of a Police Clearance Certificate on the sole ground that an applicant's name was deleted during the SIR process raises a distinct legal question: can authorities deny police clearance by treating electoral roll deletion as a proxy for doubtful citizenship, despite the Supreme Court's clarification that SIR deletion has only electoral consequences.

While the Tribunal's order resolves the petitioner's grievance, the broader legal issue remains open. Neither the Calcutta High Court nor the Tribunal has authoritatively ruled on whether a Police Clearance Certificate can legally be withheld solely because a person's name has been deleted from the electoral roll pending adjudication of an SIR dispute. That question is likely to recur as similar disputes emerge throughout the country as the SIR exercise is implemented.

Case: Akash Sarkar v. Union of India & Ors., WPA 928 of 2026