ECINet and Form 7: EC caps voter deletion requests at 10 per person during roll revision

The Election Commission of India has capped the number of Form 7 applications, the form used to object to a name on the voter list and seek its deletion, that one elector can file. Under a letter dated Friday, October 9, 2026, and signed by Under Secretary Sandeep Kumar, a person may file no more than 10 such applications during the whole claims-and-objections period of a roll revision, and no more than five a month during the routine, continuous updating of rolls. The limits apply to both online filings, including those made through the Commission's ECINet portal, and paper forms. The order came after reports that the ECINet platform had let some party booth agents file more objections than the rules allowed during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Delhi.

Form 7 is the main tool for removing names from the voter list, whether because a voter has died, moved away or is listed twice. It can also be misused. When one person files dozens of objections against neighbours or strangers, the voters named receive notices and must prove their eligibility, and some may lose their vote if they miss the process. With the SIR now running across several states and opposition parties alleging large-scale wrongful deletions, how many objections a single person can file has become a central question.

ECINet is at the heart of this. It is the Commission's unified digital platform, launched in January 2026, which brings together more than 40 apps and web services used to manage electoral rolls. A newspaper analysis of public objection lists in Delhi for September 21 to 27 found that four people had filed more than 10 objections in a day, even though existing guidelines allow a recognised party's booth-level agent no more than 10 forms a day after the draft roll is published. The analysis found that the ECINet software had no mechanism to enforce that daily limit. One booth agent filed 35 objections in two days.

The new order tightens the rule further: 10 for the whole period, not 10 a day. What the order does not say, according to the reports, is whether ECINet itself has been changed to block filings beyond the cap, or how the per-person limit fits with the older allowance for party agents.

The Form 7 order is one of several changes the Commission has made since internal disagreements were reported in late September. At a meeting on September 26, the full Commission, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, decided to set up a committee headed by a Senior Deputy Election Commissioner, with an independent expert from an IIT or IIIT, to review ECINet for compliance with the law. It also said booth-level officers would visit the homes of voters who received notices to collect documents and upload them on ECINet, and extended deadlines for claims and objections in Delhi and Maharashtra.

Short-term: EROs must now reject Form 7 applications above the cap, which should reduce bulk objections in states where the SIR claims period is still open. Voters facing notices remain entitled to respond, and an objection is only the start of a check, not a deletion.

Long-term: The order and the ECINet review together will test whether the Commission's digital system enforces its own rules. If the portal is updated to block excess filings, the cap becomes far harder to get around.

Who is affected: Voters whose names are challenged, political parties and their booth-level agents, EROs and booth-level officers who handle objections, and residents of states where the SIR is under way.

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