Supreme Court Directs Election Body to File Compliance Report on Voter List Deletion Claims

The Supreme Court has asked the Election Commission of India to submit a compliance report regarding allegations of fraud involving Form 7 applications in Uttar Pradesh. A Bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant directed the poll body to examine the issues raised and take necessary action. During the hearing on Friday, the Election Commission stated that while it discovered false Form 7 applications submitted during the Special Intensive Revision process in Uttar Pradesh, none of those improper requests were accepted. Senior advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu, representing the commission, told the court that authorities took prompt corrective steps upon finding rule violations and rejected the invalid forms. The proceedings followed a petition filed by Congress MP Tanuj Punia through senior advocate Salman Khurshid and advocate Shariq Ahmed. The plea alleged widespread fraud and bulk filing of objection forms during the claims-and-objections phase, targeting voters of a specific community. Counsel for the petitioner argued that the lack of strict corrective action in Uttar Pradesh emboldened similar attempts in Karnataka and Telangana. Pointing out that thirty-two Form 7 applications in the Hata Assembly constituency sought voter deletions from one community with two forms bearing signatures from a booth-level officer, the court instructed the petitioner's counsel to submit a detailed note. The petition noted that the voter revision process ended in April, with the final list showing an increase of eighty-four lakh voters to a total of 13.39 crore, while over two crore voters were removed. Counsel urged the court to address the matter urgently since state assembly elections could begin as early as December or January. The application detailed that numerous objection forms contained false objector details, invalid identification numbers, forged signatures, and names of individuals who denied filing them. The petition seeks legal action under relevant laws against those who submitted false declarations or impersonated objectors. In an earlier affidavit filed in September, the election body detailed ground reports about bulk submission attempts, including an instance in Hata where a person named Yogendra left forms for thirty-two voters on a booth-level officer's table and remained untraceable. Another report from Khalilabad involved bulk submission attempts that officials refused to accept, leading the commission to instruct booth-level officers not to digitize unverified documents or accept bulk applications. Officials also found invalid forms left in envelopes at the homes of booth-level officers in Sakaldiha after media reports triggered an inquiry.

Context

Form 7 is the official document used under Indian electoral laws to object to the inclusion of a name or to seek the deletion of a voter from the electoral roll. The claims-and-objections phase is a routine part of voter list revisions where citizens and political representatives can verify entries and raise objections before lists are finalized. The integrity of these rolls is crucial ahead of state assembly elections to ensure eligible voters are not wrongfully excluded.