Maharashtra seeks more discretion for officers handling voter-roll errors

Maharashtra’s Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam has asked India’s Election Commission to give Electoral Registration Officers greater discretion in handling discrepancies in electoral rolls. An official said Chockalingam made the request in a September 24 letter seeking changes to the ECINet software.

The request has been accepted, according to the official. The proposed changes concern what the official described as logical discrepancies, including mismatches in a voter’s parents’ names or age details. The request also sought authority for officers to exempt voters from hearings when the documents submitted satisfied them.

The official said the software was centralised and notices were issued through it. The state poll body wanted Electoral Registration Officers to be able to decide how to deal with notices concerning discrepancies. The Election Commission has extended the deadline for claims and objections under the Special Intensive Revision in Maharashtra from September 30 to October 12.

Enumeration forms for about 2.07 crore voters were either not collected or marked as absent, deceased, shifted or duplicate entries. The Maharashtra Congress criticised the system and demanded action against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Party spokesperson Atul Londhe alleged that ECINet was weakening the statutory authority of Electoral Registration Officers to determine voter eligibility.

The Election Commission describes ECINet as a unified digital platform intended to streamline electoral processes. Opposition parties have separately criticised decisions related to the revision, while the supplied report said the Commission has come under scrutiny over objections recorded by two election commissioners.