Overview
- The Bombay High Court’s Goa bench on Thursday told the Election Commission of India that names cannot be deleted without a hearing, challenged reliance on the draft roll and set the matter for further hearing on October 7.
- The ECI has extended SIR deadlines in Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya and ordered Booth Level Officers to carry out home visits and to use online hearings in exceptional cases to complete verifications.
- Local reporting and statutory Form 10 data show a sharp spike in bulk Form 7 objections in parts of Karnataka with many pre-filled forms targeting Muslim voters, and Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has sought constituency-level Form 7 data and asked party agents to report bulk filings.
- Court records and petitioners in Goa say ERONET software rejected or deleted existing Electors Photo Identity Cards and blocked Form 8 address-change processing, creating cases where voters had to be advised to submit Form 6 instead.
- Election officials, party leaders and lawyers warn that the combination of bulk objections, procedural handling and IT limits risks removing eligible voters and denying services tied to voter lists while multiple probes and hearings continue and some claims remain unverified.