Panaji: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday questioned the Election Commission of India (ECI) for blaming “software glitches” and sought an explanation for how “software can override the law,” after the names of seven members of a family were deleted from electoral rolls after the special intensive revision (SIR) for allegedly having “shifted,” despite their valid submission of Form 8.
Paresh Salgaoncar moved the high court after securing orders in his favour at the level of the DEO and CEO, but was asked to file Form 6 for re-entering the list as a new voter. Salgaocar refused to fill form 6 saying that doing so would amount to filing a false declaration.
Hearing the matter, the court said a name cannot be deleted from the rolls without affording a hearing to the affected party. “Show us from the Act… what empowers you to delete without a hearing?” the bench of justices Amit Jamsandekar and Valmiki Menezes said. “There is no explanation for how the officer cannot override the system and put his order under it?” the bench asked.
Also Read I ‘EC owes apology to nation’: Shashi Tharoor over report of 97 eligible Goa voters left out of electoral roll Meanwhile, the Commission told the court that it was following procedure laid down during the exercise and that the names were deleted based on inputs received from the BLOs. The matter has been posted for further hearing on October 7.
