Supreme Court orders Election Commission to probe bulk Form 7 filings
On 30 October, the Supreme Court of India ordered the Election Commission to investigate and report on irregular bulk filings of Form 7 for voter deletions after allegations that the process targeted a community in Uttar Pradesh, and reiterated that the Commission may not change the prescribed voter registration forms 6, 7 and 8, urging a simpler re-enrollment solution in Delhi. Earlier, the Court had ruled that the Commission could not alter the voter registration forms and had urged a streamlined re-enrollment method for existing voters in Delhi. The same Court had postponed a hearing on petitions against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar while Karnataka published its final electoral roll following a Special Intensive Revision that removed more than 9. 9 million names. It had also given petitioners ten days to file a rejoinder and set the next hearing for 17 November.
The petitions challenged decisions made without the consent of all commissioners, including claims that the Chief Election Commissioner acted unilaterally. The Election Commission responded by filing a 250-page affidavit asserting that the Chief Election Commissioner can be removed only on the same grounds and procedure as a Supreme Court judge and describing its unanimous decision-making process. It also defended the filing of over 1. 6 million appeals against voter inclusions in West Bengal, stating they were filed by officials of the state’s Chief Electoral Officer under Supreme Court orders. In an earlier affidavit, the Commission said its Special Intensive Revision orders were adopted unanimously and argued that petitions based on newspaper reports should be dismissed.
