Supreme Court to hear plea alleging fraudulent voter deletions in UP rolls
The Supreme Court has agreed to consider a plea by Congress MP Tanuj Punia highlighting alleged widespread misuse of Form-7 during the claims-and-objections phase of the Uttar Pradesh Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Form-7 is a statutory mechanism under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. It is intended to permit limited and bona fide objections to the inclusion of names in the electoral roll, or to seek deletions on narrowly defined grounds such as death or permanent shift of residence.
On August 5, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant heard senior advocates Salman Khursheed and advocate Shariq Ahmed, representing Mr. Punia. They submitted that documented evidence showed the Form-7 process had been used to facilitate bulk, fraudulent and targeted deletion attempts against eligible electors, “particularly of those belonging to minority and marginalised sections of society”.
The application names the Election Commission of India and the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh as respondents.
The Uttar Pradesh SIR process concluded in April, with the final voter list reportedly showing an increase of 84 lakh electors, taking the total to 13.39 crore. Mr. Khursheed and Mr. Ahmed argued that the matter needed urgent consideration, as the process for the State Assembly election may begin as early as December 2026 or January 2027. The court has tentatively scheduled the matter for hearing towards the end of August.
The application had been pending in the apex court for nearly five months, since February 2026, before being taken up on August 5.
Mr. Punia's application said there were credible reports indicating that numerous Form-7 applications were generated and submitted with incomplete or false particulars of the objector, invalid identifying details, forged signatures, and, in several instances, in the names of persons who later denied filing such objections.
It also referred to instances of Booth Level Officers receiving pre-filled Form-7 applications seeking deletion of multiple electors, including electors who had already been verified during the SIR process. These instances, the application said, raised serious apprehensions regarding the integrity of the objection mechanism.
The application cited a specific case where a person named 'Yogendar' filed objections under Form-7 against 32 electors within the same Assembly Constituency in Hata, Kushinagar district. “The objections are repetitive, bulk in nature, and mechanically invoke identical grounds without any accompanying particulars or credible basis,” the application said.
It further referred to a communication from the president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee in February to the State's Chief Electoral Officer. That communication claimed that approximately 700-800 Form-7 applications seeking deletion of voters' names were submitted in respect of Booth Nos. 71, 72, 73 and 74 of Assembly Constituency 313 Khalilabad, Sant Kabir Nagar district. It stated that the names sought to be deleted were overwhelmingly those of electors belonging to the Muslim community.
The Congress MP has sought initiation of penal action under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and other applicable provisions of law, against persons found to have made false declarations, filed fraudulent objections, impersonated objectors, or otherwise misused the Form-7 mechanism to procure wrongful deletions from electoral rolls.
“This is a development with grave constitutional implications, as it strikes at the heart of the right to political participation and the guarantee of free and fair elections. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that such revelations imperil our democratic structure itself,” Mr. Punia said in his plea.
