The Karnataka High Court has stayed criminal proceedings against two individuals accused of submitting 778 voter deletion requests during an electoral roll revision, questioning the prosecution on why filing more than 50 such applications constitutes a criminal offence.
A single-judge bench of Justice Anant Ramanath Hegde issued the interim stay on Friday while hearing quashing petitions filed by Guttahalli residents G S Vasanthalakshmi and R Deepak Singh. The two had approached the court challenging a police First Information Report registered against them for allegedly tendering false information in Form 7 applications during the SIR revision of voter lists.
Dispute Over Application Limits
Opposing the petitions, Additional Public Prosecutor Anoop Kumar argued that an individual is restricted to submitting no more than 50 Form 7 applications. The prosecution alleged that the petitioners made a deliberate effort to have legitimate voters struck off the electoral rolls.
Senior advocate M Arun Shyam, representing the petitioners, countered the allegations by explaining that the duo acted as Booth Level Agents seeking the removal of ineligible entries. Shyam argued that statutory authority to scrutinise, verify, and decide upon Form 7 applications rests exclusively with designated election officials.
Court Questions Scrutiny And Due Process
During the proceedings, the bench pressed the state on the statutory foundation for treating submissions exceeding 50 forms as a punishable offence.
The court further questioned whether election authorities would routinely examine the forms and weed out any incorrect information prior to taking a final decision, and asked whether affected voters would be served formal notices before their names could be removed from the rolls.
