New Delhi, Oct 30 — The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to examine allegations of bulk Form 7 applications seeking deletion of voters' names during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh, take corrective steps wherever necessary and file a compliance report before the court.
Source: LiveLaw
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana asked the petitioners — who include Congress MP Tanuj Punia and Samajwadi Party leader Arvind Kumar Singh — to hand the Commission a written note setting out the irregularities they say remain unresolved. On receiving it, the ECI must examine the factual position, make corrections and report back, the court said.
Appearing for the ECI, Senior Advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu told the bench the allegations had been checked and the bulk forms were found to be fake and were not acted upon. The petitioners' allegation, as recorded in the hearing, was that 32 Form 7s were submitted in a single constituency against voters of one particular community, two of them signed by Booth Level Officers — an allegation the Commission disputes on its verification.
Source: LawTrend
Form 7 is the application a person files to seek deletion of a name from the electoral roll. Bulk or fake deletion applications during a roll revision can wrongly strike eligible voters off the list, which is why the court ordered a factual check and a compliance report.
On the parallel challenges to the SIR in Kerala and Chhattisgarh, the Commission said the exercise there was complete. For Kerala, the court declined to extend the verification deadline, observing that roll correction is a continuing process, and directed that details of anyone left out be furnished to the ECI, which shall consider them sympathetically and report to the court. The UP matter remains pending.