New Delhi: Amid reports of people filing forms in bulk seeking removal of electors from voters lists, the Election Commission on Friday placed a limit of 10 forms per person on submission of such objections.
The EC has prescribed limits on the number of Form 7 applications an individual elector can file to object to the inclusion of names or seek deletion of names from electoral rolls.
The move aims to discourage bulk filing of unsubstantiated objections, reduce inconvenience to voters and ease the workload of election officials.
There were reports of such bulk filing of objections from Karnataka and Odisha.
During the claims and objections period, an individual elector can file a maximum of 10 Form 7 applications throughout the entire period.
During continuous updating of electoral rolls, the limit is five applications per month.
The poll authority wrote to all state chief electoral officers to put in place the new system.
According to the reworked mechanism, the electoral registration officer will first issue notice to the objector, hear personally, record the statements separately for each Form 7 and satisfy himself or herself about the validity of objections.
When the ERO is satisfied, he or she will dispose of the application as per rule 19 and 20 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 giving an opportunity of hearing to the person objected to.
The directive seeks to curb excessive or potentially fabricated objections to electoral rolls while reinforcing verification and procedural safeguards before names are deleted.
The commission has directed chief electoral officers of all states and Union territories to circulate the instructions among EROs, assistant EROs and field-level officials and ensure adequate publicity.