Election Commission Defends Electoral Roll Revisions Before Supreme Court Amid Mass Protests

The Election Commission of India has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court rejecting claims of solo decision-making by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The court filing stresses that all major choices won unanimous approval from both accompanying Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, following a full commission meeting held on September 26 at Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi. Frontline Magazine reported that this meeting and subsequent press notes followed internal friction over the contentious Special Intensive Revision process.

Official Clarifications

Addressing public concerns over voter registration forms, the poll body stated that Form 6 itself remains unchanged, noting that statutory alterations require direct action by the Central Government. Instead, officials introduced an extra declaration regarding voter mapping to simplify verification and stop people from submitting documents repeatedly. Voters who remain unmapped do not need to attend formal hearings, as Booth Level Officers will collect their required documents directly. Independent software experts from IIT and IISc will review the underlying system, and authorities confirmed that state election officers must approve every single name addition or deletion.

Protests And Counteractions

The revision process has triggered intense political conflict, highlighted by thousands of Form 7 deletion applications submitted in Karnataka without mandatory reasons, alongside prior removals of 1.07 crore names. The INDIA bloc organised a major protest rally at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan, demanding the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner and a rollback of the revision. In response, the BJP launched a nationwide padayatra campaign against political anarchy, deploying senior leaders across multiple states to defend the constitutional validity of the electoral updates.

Context

Electoral roll revisions are routine administrative exercises designed to clean up voter lists by removing duplicate, shifted, deceased, or absentee entries. These processes typically face heightened scrutiny from political parties and the public ahead of major state elections, where accurate voter registries are crucial for a fair democratic process.