The Karnataka High Court has imposed an interim stay on an FIR against two Bengaluru residents accused of filing Form 7 applications to remove allegedly ineligible names from the voter list, while questioning the prosecution’s claim that submitting more than 50 such applications could constitute an offence.
Justice Anant Ramanath Hegde’s single-judge bench was hearing writ petitions filed by Guttahalli residents G.S. Vasanthalakshmi and R. Deepak Singh, who sought the cancellation of the FIR registered against them. The case relates to applications filed during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The petitioners’ senior counsel, M. Arun Shyam, told the court that the applicants were booth-level agents of the Bharatiya Janata Party and had submitted Form 7 applications seeking the removal of ineligible names from the electoral roll. He argued that the authority to examine the applications and decide whether a name should be removed rests with election officials.
Additional Public Prosecutor Anoop Kumar opposed the petitions, stating that an individual could submit a maximum of 50 applications. According to the prosecution, the petitioners had filed 778 Form 7 applications and had allegedly attempted to remove voters’ names from the electoral roll with malicious intent.
The bench questioned why filing more than 50 applications would amount to a criminal offence and asked whether election officials were not required to examine the accuracy of the information submitted through Form 7. The court also asked whether voters would receive notice before their names were removed from the electoral roll.
The court observed that the FIR appeared, at first sight, to have been registered in haste and granted interim protection against the FIR while adjourning further proceedings. The order does not decide whether the applications contained false information or whether any voter was improperly removed from the electoral roll.
The proceedings come as Karnataka’s election machinery works through a large number of notices issued during the SIR exercise. The Chief Electoral Officer’s office said that 93.47% of the notices issued to 43.82 lakh voters had been examined. These notices were generated for voters whose mapping details were unavailable or showed discrepancies in the draft electoral roll.
According to the figures reported by Prajavani, 43.73 lakh notices had been distributed and 40.88 lakh cases had been examined. The distribution of 8,570 notices and the examination of 2.85 lakh notices were still pending. Authorities have time until October 12 to complete the distribution, examination and disposal of the notices.
The examination process had been completed in all districts except Belagavi, Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru Urban, BBMP South, BBMP Central, Kalaburagi and Gadag, according to the Chief Electoral Officer’s office. The scale of the exercise places election officials at the centre of decisions that can affect whether citizens remain on the electoral roll, are added to it or must correct their details.
The same process has also generated 9.52 lakh Form 6 applications from people who were not included in the draft electoral roll and sought fresh registration. A further 12.34 lakh voters submitted applications to correct details in the list. The authorities’ next stated milestone is October 12, when the remaining notice distribution, hearings and disposal are expected to be completed.
