According to sources, the Election Commission reviewed the Rules under the Registration of Electors before the CEO issued the inquiry order.
A day after Chief Minister D K Shivakumar sat on dharna at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer Karnataka demanding FIRs against bulk Form 7 applicants alleging systematic targeting of minorities, Dalits and backward classes through pre-printed forms and forged signatures, which forced CEO V Anbukkumar to order action against false claims under Section 31 of RP Act, 1950, the Election Commission has clarified that not a single voter’s name has been deleted based on the Form 7 applications so far.
The Commission has clarified that it has received 84,900 Form-7 applications from June 16 till Oct 1, and none of them are objections to proposed inclusion in the draft roll published on Aug 24, and no voter has been deleted based on these forms either.
According to sources, the Election Commission reviewed the Rules under the Registration of Electors before the CEO issued the inquiry order.
“As per Rule 20 of Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, EROs will conduct summary inquiry into every Form-7 seeking deletion or objecting to inclusion. Notices will be issued to both voter and objector, followed by physical hearing before order is passed. If an objection is approved upon verification, the voter is deleted; if rejected, voter retained,” explained an official.
Who can seek deletion?
Even as the ruling Congress alleged that the BJP and JDS were targeting deletion of 5,000 to 15,000 voters in each assembly constituency, the officials maintained that only a voter from same Assembly constituency could file Form-7 – seeking deletion of own name, a family member’s name or object to inclusion of voter(s) in same constituency. Every booth level agent (BLA) appointed by parties can file only up to 50 Form-7s throughout SIR, while a common voter can file only 10.