Election Officials in Karnataka File Thousands of Form-7 Deletion Requests Without Reasons

Election officials in Karnataka filed at least 61,059 Form-7 applications to delete voter names from electoral rolls without listing any reasons, violating a mandatory rule under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. Electoral Registration Officers and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers stated that an automated system generated the forms using their digital signatures when voters could not be reached during hearings for mapping or logical errors. This process meant the election machinery acted as both the objector and the deciding authority, even though rules state that objections lacking proper reasons must be rejected. Officials were instructed to file these forms for voters who had shifted, died, held duplicate entries, were underage, or were non-citizens. Because the forms were auto-generated, the reason field stayed blank, preventing voters or auditors from verifying if the removals were valid. These categories had already been checked during the Special Intensive Revision enumeration phase, which previously removed over 1.07 crore names from the draft roll. The volume of official Form-7 filings surged sharply after the claims and objections period ended on September 23, 2026. Only 192 such applications were filed between August 24 and September 23, while more than 60,800 were submitted between September 24 and October 22. Officials filed 10,105 applications on October 22 alone, which was the final day for disposal. Sample checks of EPIC numbers on the Election Commission of India portal showed that names cited in these late applications were already deleted from the roll. This timeline conflicts with Rule 17, which requires rejecting objections lodged outside the prescribed period or manner. In the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike South district, officials filed 10,374 out of 17,491 total Form-7 applications. Specifically, in the Bommanahalli Assembly constituency, officials submitted 4,095 of the 5,757 applications received. This trend of officials outnumbering voters or third parties in filing Form-7 forms appeared in at least 26 Assembly constituencies. Karnataka's final electoral roll is set for publication on October 27, with only pre-September 23 filings intended for inclusion. Late applications were meant for a later supplementary roll, yet sample checks confirmed those names were already scrubbed. Additionally, records show a gap of 13,808 applications between the CEO's office statement reporting 1,70,442 applications and the 1,56,634 applications found in the ECI website's Form-10 records.

Context

Form-7 applications are standard legal forms used in India for raising objections to proposed inclusions or seeking the deletion of names from voter lists. The Special Intensive Revision process is a large-scale administrative exercise carried out by election authorities to clean up and update electoral databases. Electoral Registration Officers are responsible for ensuring that voter rolls remain accurate while strictly following due process and giving citizens a fair chance to respond to notices.