Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer V Anbuk Kumar has clarified that no voter has so far been deleted from the draft electoral roll merely because an objection was filed through Form 7, amid allegations of mass deletions and errors during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Kumar said Electoral Registration Officers must follow the prescribed procedure before removing any voter’s name, including issuing notices to both the person who filed the objection and the concerned voter, conducting a hearing and verifying supporting documents.
Kumar said the filing of a Form 7 objection by itself does not result in deletion from the electoral roll. He added that the process would be carried out strictly according to the rules and that cases involving allegations of incorrect deletions or voters being wrongly marked as dead would have to be examined by the concerned EROs. The clarification comes amid reports of voters finding their names missing or incorrectly recorded in Karnataka’s draft electoral rolls.
The CEO also acknowledged that the Election Commission had received a large number of Form 7 applications seeking deletion of names. As of October 4, a total of 91,278 such applications had been received. Kumar said there was no specific legal definition of a “bulk” request, but the rules prescribe limits on the number of Form 7 applications that an individual or Booth Level Agent can submit. One person or BLA can submit up to 10 applications a day and up to 50 during the SIR exercise, while applications exceeding the permitted limit can be examined and rejected by the ERO.
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Kumar said EROs had also been instructed to investigate allegations involving knowingly false declarations in Form 7. Under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, action can be taken following an inquiry under Rule 20 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. He said his office had not registered any case so far over such false declarations, while some FIRs filed by private complainants concerning alleged bulk applications were sub judice. He also clarified that Form 8 is meant for corrections and changes to details such as name and address and cannot be used to delete a voter.
Around 43 lakh voters have been issued notices during the SIR process, Kumar said, with 99.4% of the notices served and 85% of hearings completed. The remaining cases are being processed, while the final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on October 27. He added that the electoral roll remains under continuous updating, allowing voters who are left out to continue submitting Forms 6, 6A, 7 and 8. A special enrolment drive is also planned after publication of the final SIR roll.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Pradesh Mahila Congress president Sowmya Reddy has filed a police complaint alleging irregularities in voter deletions in her Jayanagar Assembly constituency. Reddy claimed that 4,327 voters were deleted from the electoral roll in Ward 171, Gurrappanapalya, while 5,698 Form 7 applications seeking deletions were submitted across the constituency. She alleged that the applications were submitted at the behest of a person identified as Lokesh, whom she claimed works for BJP leader CK Ramamurthy, and alleged the involvement of another person, Yogesh. Reddy said she had video footage and photographs that could serve as evidence and urged authorities to verify the records and take action if violations are established.
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