(TibetanReview.net, Sep22’26) – Almost all Tibetans in the Tibetan settlements in the state of Odisha who had registered to vote in Indian government elections have seen their names removed from the voters’ list under the Election Commission of India’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive, to the disappointment of many, reported the timesofindia.com Sep 21.
There are around 2,500 Tibetans settled in five camps in the state’s Gajapati district under a government settlement programme. This dates back to 1962 following China’s armed invasion of Tibet, which resulted in many fleeing to India in 1959. Those who have registered to vote in the state stands at just around 300, according to the report.
In 2014, the Election Commission of India ordered state electoral bodies to register eligible Tibetans in their voters’ list. Such eligible Tibetans include those born in the country before Jul 1, 1987, and their children born up to Dec 2, 2004, with one of their parents being such an Indian citizen.
The commission’s order was based on a High Court ruling which said that Tibetans born in India between Jan 26, 1950, and Jul 1, 1987, were citizens and therefore eligible to be registered as voters in the country.
The Delhi High Court gave the first ruling in favour of the Indian citizenship of Tibetans born in the country in Dec 2010 (Namgyal Dolkar), followed by another one in 2016 (Lobsang Wangyal and others), and most recently, in Feb 2026 (Ms Yangchen Drakmargyapon). There have been several other High Court rulings too, such as the Karnataka High Court (Tenzin Choephag Ling Rinpoche, Aug 2013) and the High Court of Meghalaya at Shillong (Tenzing Choden Sherpa, Doma Tsering and Phuntsok Tashi, Mar 2017).
In the present case, Chakaradhar Padhy, the tehsildar (land revenue officer) of Gajapati district’s Mohana assembly constituency, has told the timesofindia.com that the Tibetans settled in the area are not Indians. “During the SIR exercise, they could not submit any document of their Indian citizen. As per the SIR guideline, the base year was taken as 2002. Their names could not be found in the voters’ list in 2002. After proper verification of the documents, some of the voters’ names were deleted in the final list as per the SIR guidelines.”
The names of almost all registered voters from the Tibetan settlement camps of Chandragiri, Jirang, Labarsingh, Mahendragarh and Tankilipadar are missing in the final voters’ list, Tenzin, 61, an executive body member of the regional Tibetan Youth Congress, has said.
“We will again appeal to the district authorities to add their names.”