Pune: Civil rights groups on Saturday wondered how poll officials would identify the repeat Form 7 applicants, a day after ECI introduced a cap of 10 applications — online and physical submissions combined — per person.Activists questioned how the cap would be enforced across applications filed since Aug 31 in Maharashtra. The earlier system limited online submissions to six at a time. Bulk physical submissions had no uniform numerical ceiling.Activist Ulka Mahajan said every deletion request needed careful scrutiny, particularly when field verification itself remained a concern. “These forms have to be double-checked and BLOs (booth-level officers), who are supposed to visit people’s homes, are not reaching them,” she said.A total of 18,748 applications were filed in Maharashtra seeking deletion of names till Oct 8. The deadline for claims and objections to the draft electoral roll under the SIR exercise is Oct 12. The final electoral roll is scheduled for publication on Nov 16.Election Commission of India (ECI)’s 10 Form 7 application cap per individual came amid controversies over alleged attempts to use it to remove eligible voters. In Karnataka’s Ballari City constituency, a dispute erupted over the re-verification of 7,561 voters. Congress alleged it was an attempt to delete their names. In Hyderabad’s Musheerabad constituency, Congress alleged that a BJP booth-level agent had filed more than 30 Form 7 applications seeking deletion of members of a Muslim family.Civil rights groups in Maharashtra raised questions over how officials would identify repeat applicants, reconcile online and offline submissions, and enforce the limit when just two days were left to file claims and objections to the state’s draft poll roll. “Will the order be applied retrospectively?” one of them asked.A senior official from the state chief electoral officer’s office said checks on bulk applications were under way. He said electoral registration officers (EROs) and assistant EROs (AEROs) would reconcile applications received through the voter services portal with the physical forms submitted to BLOs and election offices, identify repeat applicants and determine how to handle cases exceeding the new ceiling.The state chief electoral officer’s office had earlier alerted district collectors and commissioners about the possibility of bulk filing of Form 7 application and directed officials to verify every deletion request before taking a decision.Under ECI’s instructions, EROs must verify Form 7 applications, issue notices to objectors and hear them personally before deciding the cases. They must verify the applicants’ identity against electoral-roll details and ensure that forms are complete and carry the objector’s original signature. Electors whose names are challenged must also be given an opportunity to respond before a deletion order is passed. Knowingly making a false declaration can attract action under Section 31 of the Representation of People Act, 1950.
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