ECI limits number of Form 7 applications from individuals after controversy – what happened and what it means | Today’s news
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday directed Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) in all states and Union Territories to limit the number of Form 7 applications an individual can file in a bid to curb misuse of the form, allowing voters to challenge proposed additions to electoral rolls or seek deletion of existing entries.
According to reports, the EC’s decision is based on repeated cases where individual voters filed Form 7 objections en masse for “unfounded reasons”. According to the poll commission, this practice caused inconvenience to the genuine voters whose names were challenged and created unnecessary administrative burden on the election staff at the field level.
What is Form 7 for?
Form 7 allows a registered voter to challenge someone’s proposed inclusion on the electoral roll or request that an existing entry be deleted. The applicant must be registered in the same electoral district as the person whose registration is contested. Aadhaar based authentication has recently been added to the online process.
Controversy over Form 7 applications
The directive issued to all CEOs comes a week after a BJP leader in Karnataka courted controversy by filing Form 7 applications for several hundred people. According to media reports, Ravi Patil, a BJP leader from Belagavi North Assembly constituency, is facing charges of misusing Form 7 to try to erase the names of some Muslim voters.
An FIR against Patil was registered at the Belagavi Market police station for allegedly misusing Form 7 and illegally erasing the names of around 200 Muslim voters from Veerabhadra Nagar during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.
ECI cap Form 7 Individual applications: What we know
Under the new guidelines, an individual can file a maximum of 10 Form 7 applications during the entire grievance and objection period. Additionally, during continuous updating, an individual can file a maximum of five Form 7 applications per month.
Separately, under Rule 17 of the Electoral Registration Rules, 1960, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) must reject applications that do not meet the prescribed deadline, format or filing procedure. Each form must contain complete information and an original signature of the objector; signature stamps are not allowed. The ERO must also verify the identity of the applicant by checking his data against the voters’ list.
Before making a decision on the objection, the ERO must inform the objector, consider his case and record a separate statement for each application on Form 7. If the officer finds grounds for a continuance, the person whose entry in the electoral roll is contested must also be given an opportunity to be heard before a final order is issued.
How many Form 7 applications could be submitted earlier?
According to ANI, Booth Level Agents (BLAs) appointed by political parties can submit up to 50 forms a day before the release of the draft voter list during the SIR exercise and 10 a day after the release. However, individual voters previously did not have a clearly defined numerical limit for offline proposals.
The 2023 Electoral Rolls Manual already banned mass submissions by individuals and required the ERO to personally check objections when one person challenged more than five entries. However, the number of physical forms accepted was left to the ERO’s discretion, causing uncertainty among officials.
