The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court has said a voter’s name cannot be removed from the electoral roll merely on the basis of a draft list prepared during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The court asked the Election Commission what legal provision permits deletion without a proper inquiry and without giving the voter an opportunity to be heard.
The case arose from Santa Cruz Assembly constituency in Panaji, where Paresh Salkongkar’s family shifted to another house within the same constituency. Following instructions from the booth-level officer, six family members submitted Form 8 applications seeking only an address change.
However, their applications showed an error on the Election Commission’s “ERONET” software, reportedly because their voter ID-related data was not available in the system. With the software displaying only a “rejection” option, the assistant electoral registration officer said the applications could not be processed and advised them to submit Form 6 meant for first-time voter registration.
Hearing the petition before Justices Amit Jamsondekar and Valmiki Menezes, the bench observed that software limitations cannot be a reason to delete a person’s name from the voters’ list. It noted that if names are removed based on the draft roll, Forms 6, 7 and 8 would lose their purpose.
The court also criticised election officials for shifting responsibility to software and urged them to apply independent judgment while deciding address-change requests. It pointed out that many voters who face similar issues after shifting residences may not approach the court, and said authorities must recognise this reality.
