Maharashtra’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S Chockalingam has sought changes to the Election Commission’s ECINet software to give Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) greater discretion while handling notices issued during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls.
The request comes as Maharashtra remains in the notice phase of the SIR exercise. Chockalingam has sought more flexibility for EROs in dealing with cases flagged for “logical discrepancies”—mismatches that can arise while linking a voter’s details with those of a parent or grandparent in the previous SIR roll.
What Maharashtra CEO has sought
One of the key requests is to allow EROs to decide such cases after examining documents and conducting a hearing, rather than having the software limit the options available to field-level officials.
The Maharashtra CEO has also sought an option allowing an ERO to exempt an elector from a personal hearing when the documents submitted are considered satisfactory. The proposal is aimed at avoiding unnecessary appearances, particularly for people who may find it difficult to attend hearings in person.
EROs are the statutory officials responsible for electoral rolls for Assembly constituencies. The issue raised by Maharashtra is that the technology used for processing cases has placed several functions under centralised control.
The concern echoes objections earlier raised by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi over the functioning of the ECINet system. Sandhu had said that CEOs, DEOs and EROs were reporting that they could not perform their duties, with their powers “curtailed by centralised control of ERONet at DG(IT) level.”
EC already changes hearing process
The Election Commission has since modified the procedure for voters who receive notices over unmapped entries or logical discrepancies. Under the revised process, Booth Level Officers can collect documents from voters’ homes and upload them on ECINet for the ERO to examine.
Such voters will not ordinarily have to appear before the ERO or Assistant ERO. Hearings can be held in exceptional cases and, where possible, online.
The ECI has also set up a committee headed by a Senior Deputy Election Commissioner, with an independent IIT or IIIT expert, to review ECINet’s compliance with relevant laws and rules.
Maharashtra draft roll and next deadline
The Maharashtra draft electoral roll, published on August 31, left around 2.07 crore electors out of the draft. Officials have said this does not represent final deletions, with absent, shifted, deceased and duplicate entries accounting for much of the figure.
The deadline for filing claims and objections has now been extended to October 12, while the final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on November 16.