No SoPs regarding auto-generated Forms 7 have been shared with state election officials

Representative image. | Photo credit: J. Allen Egenuse

With thousands of names removed from electoral rolls during phases 2 and 3 of Special Intensive Review (SIR) using an automatically generated Form 7 digitally signed by Election Registration Officers (ERO), it has now emerged that the exercise is being carried out by state election authorities without any written protocol or standard operating procedure (SOP) being issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Form 7 is the official voter application form issued by the European Citizens’ Initiatives to object to a proposed entry or to request the deletion of an existing name from the electoral rolls.

While there is no provision for EROs or Assistant EROs (AEROs) to fill Form 7 themselves under the election rules, states like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have witnessed election officials using this route to omit names from the list due to unresolved logical discrepancies and in cases where voters were found to be “unmapped”.

According to several state election officials The Hindu spoke to, ECI’s ERONet software automatically generated these Form 7s when officials cleared voters during the SIR hearing. The automatically generated forms came with digital signatures of the officers.

In Delhi, for example, The Hindu had earlier reported that ERO and eros were named as “rejectors” for many forms filed against voters in the draft list. All of these voters were flagged for a “logical mismatch” or “no mapping” warning in the draft list published on August 31. Reports say that more than 87,000 names in Uttar Pradesh and more than 95,000 in Uttarakhand have been deleted using this method.

However, according to sources, there was no written communication or standard operating procedure (SoP) shared with the election authorities in the states in this regard.

ECI is yet to respond to an official query on the matter.

According to the 2024 Electoral Rolls Manual, there is no provision for the ERO to file Form 7. However, the ERO, which is the arbitrator in the process, can delete a name that has been found ineligible.

The rules say that Form 7 can only be filed by a person whose name is already included in the list in which the objected name appears. In case of death, Form 7 can come from a family member, local elector or Booth Level Officer (BLO). Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of recognized parties can submit a maximum of 10 forms per day and cross-verification by ERO or AERO is required if a BLA submits more than 30 forms in a review period. Recently, the ECI also introduced a cap on the number of such forms that an individual can file following the furore over mass filing of Form 7s in many states.

In terms of the ERO’s powers, these include receiving and examining the form, maintaining lists of Form 7 applications in Form 10 and displaying them on the authority’s notice board. They must personally cross-check the deletion if the same person is the objector on more than five occasions.

Although there is no general rule for automatic generation of Form 7, the term is only mentioned as part of the Photo Similar Entries (PSE) verification process in the manual.

These forms 7 generated by ERONet are also not filed by ERO. Such forms must also be signed after field verification by the BLO otherwise they cannot be accepted by the system and cannot be processed.

Published – 15 Oct 2026 22:59 IST