Notice to ex-Navy chief due to incomplete electoral roll form: ECI

The Election Commission of India on Monday issued a clarification on the notice issued as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision in Goa to former Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash (retd), stating that his enumeration form did not contain mandatory particulars related to the previous SIR.

The ECI had asked Prakash, who has been settled in Goa since his retirement, to attend a meeting to establish his identity as part of the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls.

Several netizens, including those who retired from the armed forces, had expressed concern about such a notice to Prakash, a Vir Chakra awardee for his role in the India-Pakistan War of 1971. In a clarification issued on Monday, Electoral Registration Officer Dr Medora Ermomilla D’Costa said, “In the context of media reports relating to notices issued during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), it is clarified that during the course of SIR, the Booth Level Officer (BLO) of Part No. 43 of Cortalim Assembly Constituency collected the enumeration form pertaining to Arun Prakash.”

“It was observed that the said enumeration form did not contain the mandatory particulars relating to the previous SIR, including the name of the elector, EPIC number, name of the relative, name and number of the Assembly Constituency, Part number, and serial number in the electoral roll,” D’Costa added. In the absence of these essential identification details, the BLO Application was unable to establish an automatic linkage between the submitted enumeration form and the existing electoral roll database, the official pointed out. As all the fields pertaining to the last SIR were left blank, the system categorised the enumeration form under the ‘unmapped’ category, the clarification mentioned.

“The BLO application is designed to automatically map enumeration forms only when the prescribed identification particulars are duly filled in, enabling verification with the existing electoral roll. In cases where enumeration forms remain unmapped, the SIR process mandates further verification through a hearing mechanism,” D’Costa said.

D’Costa said, as per the standard, system-driven procedure, a hearing notice was automatically generated and issued to enable verification of the elector’s details and ensure due opportunity for confirmation of eligibility.