Voter Roll Legal Battle
Election Commission defends voter deletion procedures before the Bombay High Court.
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India's Election Commission faces tough questions from the Bombay High Court over how it deletes voters during electoral revision exercises. The case centers on Paresh Salgaonkar, a Santa Cruz resident removed from the draft voter list after shifting his address within the same constituency. The court challenged whether the Election Commission's procedure follows the law and protects voter rights Hindustan Times.
The core dispute: the Election Commission says deleted voters must file Form 6 (for new voters) to re-register, even though they already voted before. Salgaonkar and the court argue this forces citizens to make a false declaration under oath. Over 127,000 voters were removed from Goa's final electoral roll during the revision process — nearly 11% of eligible voters Hindustan Times.
How the Software Trap Deleted Registered Voters
During the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in late 2025, the Election Commission required all voters to submit physical enumeration forms. When Salgaonkar and his family shifted homes within their constituency, they didn't receive these forms. The commission's ERONET software automatically deleted their voter IDs from the draft roll. When they tried to file Form 8 to correct their address, the system rejected it — their ID numbers no longer existed in the database Indian Express.
The family had lived at their new address for 8 years before trying to update their registration. They received an automated message in February 2026 explaining their Form 8 applications were rejected because their voter cards had been deleted Indian Express. The Election Commission then told them to file Form 6 instead — a form meant only for first-time voters and people moving between constituencies.
The Court's Catch-22 Objection
The Bombay High Court judges expressed alarm at the situation. They questioned why the Election Commission created a rule that deletes voters from the draft roll, then blocks them from using the normal form to fix their address. Justice Valmiki Menezes asked: if citizens are being removed, what is the purpose of this revision process? The court noted that software limitations cannot override what the law says Daily Hunt.
Salgaonkar's attorney argued that filing Form 6 amounts to a false declaration. The form requires voters to state they are not already registered and have not shifted from another constituency. For someone already on the voter roll, signing this would be lying under oath. The Election Commission's lawyer countered that Form 6 is a legitimate remedy and does not constitute a false declaration under revision rules Hindustan Times.
National Scale of Voter Deletions
Goa deleted 127,468 voters — 10.76% of the state's 1.2 million eligible voters. But the problem extends nationwide. Over 6 crore (60 million) voter deletions have been reported across phase three of the revision exercise in multiple states Live Research Data. Thousands of citizens may face the same situation: deleted by software rules, then forced to file forms meant for new voters to regain registration.
Election analysts note that the Election Commission's software constraints are overriding statutory voter rights. The revision process, meant to clean up outdated records, is instead removing long-time voters who simply moved homes within their constituency. If the court does not intervene, hundreds of thousands could remain disenfranchised Indian Express.
What the Court Might Order Next
The Bombay High Court is considering two remedies: ordering the Election Commission to reprogram ERONET to accept Form 8 applications from deleted voters, or mandating manual restoration of deleted voter records. Either option would require acknowledging that software rules cannot override the Representation of the People's Act Hindustan Times.
The ruling could set a precedent preventing the Election Commission from using software constraints as justification to reject statutory voter forms. If Salgaonkar wins, it might force restoration of millions of deleted voters nationwide and require the commission to fix its revision procedures Indian Express.
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