Supreme Court seeks report from ECI on allegations of misuse of Form 7

The Election Commission of India (EC) on Friday (Oct 30, 2026) told the Supreme Court that though it had found “fake” Form 7 for deletion of voters during the Uttar Pradesh special intensive review (SIR), none of them had been accepted.

Senior advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu of the ECI, appearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, said immediate remedial action was taken when such “fake” forms were detected. The authorities rejected Form 7 filed in violation of norms, ECI said.

The ECI was responding to allegations made in a petition by Barabanki Congress MP Tanuj Punia, represented by senior advocate Salman Khurshid and advocate Shariq Ahmed, of widespread abuse and fraud in connection with mass filing of Form 7 during the claims and objections phase of the Uttar Pradesh SIR.

Mr. Ahmed disputed the ECI’s claim that bogus Form 7s were stopped at the gates. He said the court must subject the claim to judicial review. Counsel argued that it was the lack of any remedial action in SIR Uttar Pradesh that “encouraged” the filing of bulk Form 7s in Karnataka and Telangana.

“Out of 32 forms 7 in Uttar Pradesh’s Hata Assembly constituency, two were signed by a booth-level official. All these forms related to deletion of voters belonging to one community,” the lawyer said. The court asked Mr. Ahmed to submit a note with details and any additional information on the matter.

“Let the ECI look into these matters, take necessary action and submit a compliance report,” the court observed.

The SIR process in Uttar Pradesh ended in April with the final voter list showing an increase of 84 million voters to 13.39 million. After the revision, more than two million voters were removed.

Mr. Khurshid and Mr. Ahmed pointed out that the issue raised in MP Barabanki’s request needs to be addressed without further delay as the State Assembly election process may start as early as December 2026 or early January next year.

Mr Punio’s plea detailed that “numerous” Form 7 applications were generated and submitted with incomplete or false objector details, invalid identification details, forged signatures and in several cases in the names of people who subsequently refused to lodge any such objections. He also alleged that booth level officers (BLOs) received pre-filled Form 7 applications seeking deletion of multiple voters, including voters who had already been verified during the SIR process.

MP Barabanki said the cases raised “serious concerns about the integrity of the objection mechanism”. He sought the initiation of criminal proceedings under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and other relevant provisions of the Act against persons found to have made false statements, filed fraudulent objections, impersonated objections or otherwise abused the Form 7 mechanism to obtain unauthorized deletions from the electoral rolls.

Multiple instances

Mr Naidu’s submissions in the Supreme Court echo an affidavit filed by the Election Commission in September, citing numerous reports received from election officials on the ground about attempts to submit Form 7 BLOs en masse.

These included a case in Hata Assembly constituency where a person identified as ‘Yogendra’ only ‘involuntarily’ left 7 BLO forms on the table to wipe out 32 voters. The man, ‘Yogendra’, remains untraceable.

The ECI affidavit again states that the Khalilabad Electoral Registration Officer’s report narrated an attempt to submit F7 en masse to the BLO. “However, due to the large number, the forms were not received,” the ECI said. The survey organization said the incident prompted it to “categorically direct” BLOs not to digitize any form without proper scrutiny and not to accept Form 7s in bulk.

The affidavit said that media reports led to an investigation at Sakaldiha where officials discovered bogus Form 7s which were neither issued by the concerned BLOs nor filed as per the procedure.

Form 7s for erasure of voter names can be obtained from District Electoral Officers, Voter Registration Centres, BLOs or Voter Services Portal. The applicant must submit a duly filled and signed Form 7 with EPIC and telephone number, either in person at the BLO or online.

The affidavit said Form 7s were also found inside “envelopes at the premises of some BLOs”. “After due enquiry, the persons in whose names the Forms 7 were allegedly filed refused to send them. They further stated that the forms were fake,” the ECI said.

Published – 30 Oct 2026 21:19 IST