A division bench of the Bombay High Court in Goa has raised sharp questions against the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the deletion of voters’ names during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The hearing stems from a petition filed by Paresh Salgaoncar and five family members whose names were removed from the voter rolls after moving to a new house within the Santa Cruz assembly constituency. The court criticised this requirement, emphasising that existing voters cannot be forced to make false declarations meant for new applicants, which could expose citizens to legal risk. The high court questioned the primary purpose of the SIR process if eligible voters are routinely excluded due to technical processes.
Election officials subsequently instructed the family to fill Form 6 – a mechanism designated strictly for first-time voter enrolment. Referring to Rule 21 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, the judges underscored that election authorities are legally obligated to grant a hearing before striking any citizen off the existing electoral rolls. The judges said that apart from the obligations of BLOs (booth-level officers), the mandate given in paragraph 5 of the order (related to SIR) says no citizen should be left out.
“If you read paragraph 8 of the order it says the commission has an obligation to ensure that only persons who are citizens are on the roll,” they said.
