SIR: How many Form 7 can one person submit? EC now says 10

Facing intense scrutiny and heat over deletion of names and objections to inclusion of names in the electoral rolls, the Election Commission of India has now introduced a cap on how many Form 7 applications a single registered elector can submit. This, according to a late Friday night statement by the ECI, was necessary to prevent “bulk or malicious attempts” to remove legitimate voters. These restrictions apply to forms submitted online or offline, the statement said.

During the summary revision period designated for filing claims and objections, an individual voter is allowed to submit a maximum of 10 Form 7 applications.

This latest move by the ECI comes amid reports of bulk filing of Form 7 applications from several states during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Chief electoral officers of all states have been directed to brief their field staff on the new directions.

According to the reworked mechanism, the electoral registration officer (ERO) will first issue a notice to the objector, hear him/her personally, record statements separately for each Form 7 and satisfy himself about the validity of the objections.

The ERO will then dispose of the application as per Rules 19 and 20 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, giving an opportunity of hearing to the person objected to.

Form 7 is used to object to a proposed voter inclusion or to request the deletion of a name from the existing electoral roll. However, since the beginning of the SIR process, there have been reports of misuse and wrongdoings with reports of Form 7s being submitted in bulk by a single person.