PANAJI: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has reserved its verdict on a petition filed by

PANAJI — The High Court of Bombay at Goa has reserved its verdict on a petition filed by a family whose names were removed from electoral rolls following the rejection of their address-change applications.

During the proceedings, Senior Advocate Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, representing the Election Commission of India (ECI), told the court that the absence of a voter’s name from a draft Special Intensive Revision (SIR) does not constitute a formal deletion.

Because the electoral roll is built completely from scratch during an SIR, there is no pre-existing active roll from which names can be removed, the ECI counsel explained. He stated that non-inclusion in the draft is merely a procedural status that requires the individual to complete the due process for enrollment.

The case involves petitioner Paresh Salgaoncar and five members of his family, who relocated to a new residence within the Santa Cruz Assembly constituency roughly eight years ago. According to the petitioners, a booth-level officer (BLO) instructed them to submit Form 8 applications to reflect their new address. However, the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer later informed them that their Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) had been deleted from the rolls, rendering their Form 8 applications unprocessable.

The petitioners maintained they were told the only available recourse was to submit Form 6—typically reserved for new voters—because the ERONET system lacked an option to review or restore deleted EPICs.

During the hearings, a division bench of Justices Amit S Jamsandekar and Valmiki Menezes questioned why Form 8 applications are barred during the SIR procedure.

The ECI counsel clarified the operational distinction between the routine Special Summary Revision (SSR) and the comprehensive SIR. While the standard SSR updates an active existing roll, Rule 25(2) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, mandates that an intensive revision must be prepared entirely afresh from the ground up.

Under the SIR framework, BLOs visit households to collect enumeration forms using existing rolls strictly as a reference base. Because the prior roll is not carried forward automatically, draft lists comprise solely those individuals who have been enumerated.

The ECI further submitted that the petitioner had not resided at the address listed on the pre-SIR rolls for nearly a decade and failed to apply for an address shift within the constituency prior to the commencement of the revision. The counsel added that because Form 8 is designed to shift or correct an existing active entry, it cannot apply when an individual’s base entry no longer exists on a freshly compiled draft roll.

To secure a place on the final roll under such circumstances, individuals must file Form 6 along with required declarations and supporting documents during the claims and objections window, effectively being treated as new applicants regardless of their prior voter status.