The Karnataka High Court has stayed further investigation into criminal cases against two BJP Booth Level Agents accused of submitting fraudulent Form 7 applications seeking the deletion of voters from electoral rolls in two Bengaluru constituencies. The interim order will remain in force until the next hearing, which has been scheduled for next month.
Justice Anant Ramanath Hegde passed the order while hearing petitions filed by booth agents G S Vasanthalakshmi and Deepak Singh R. The court issued notice to the Karnataka government and complainant Anoop Iyengar, directing them to file their statements of objections before the matter is heard again.
Form 7 is used to object to the proposed inclusion or deletion of a name from an existing electoral roll. An elector may submit the form to request deletion of their own name or to object to another elector’s inclusion in the constituency. Applications are examined through the procedure prescribed under the relevant electoral-roll rules before a competent authority takes a decision.
The court observed that the competent authority had not yet decided on the Form 7 applications. “Before a decision is taken on the Form 7, prima facie there cannot be an investigation,” Justice Hegde said while staying the proceedings until the next date of hearing.
Senior Advocate Arun Shyam, representing the petitioners, argued that the booth-level agents had not denied submitting the Form 7 applications and were authorised to do so. He submitted that the criminal cases were premature because the electoral authorities had not completed the process for examining the objections.
The state and the complainant opposed the petitions. Their argument was that someone had impersonated the petitioners and submitted applications against genuine voters who could face disenfranchisement. They also contended that bulk applications were filed in breach of the limit prescribed by the Election Commission of India.
The complaint against Vasanthalakshmi relates to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Ward No. 64. It alleges that Form 7 objections were submitted against 778 electors across eight parts, identifying them as absent or permanently shifted. The complaint against Singh concerns Ward No. 45, where objections were allegedly submitted against 136 electors on similar grounds.
The complainants have alleged that signatures on several forms differed and raised the possibility that either the petitioners or another person using their names had forged the signatures. The police cases include allegations of impersonation and of providing false information to a public servant with an intention to cause injury.
Police have registered multiple cases since September 30 against booth-level agents who submitted Form 7 applications in constituencies including Bhalki, Bableshwar, Belgaum Uttar and Ballari. Reports of mass submissions of Form 7 applications, including forms that appeared to have been auto-populated, have also emerged from different parts of Karnataka.
The High Court’s order pauses the criminal investigation at this stage; it does not decide whether the applications were fraudulent, whether impersonation occurred or whether any voters were wrongly targeted. Those questions remain connected to the electoral authorities’ examination of the applications and the court’s next hearing.
