Pune: Election Commission on Saturday extended Maharashtra’s deadline for filing claims and objections under the special intensive revision (SIR) to Oct 12, giving electors 12 additional days to seek inclusion or correction in the draft electoral rolls.The previous deadline was Sept 30. The deadline for the disposal of notices, claims, and objections has also been extended to Nov 10, with the final publication of the roll now scheduled for Nov 16.The extension follows a request from Maharashtra chief electoral officer (CEO) amid the ongoing issuance of notices to electors whose entries have been flagged as unmapped or having logical discrepancies, with hearings commencing in the coming week.EC has also eased the hearing process following a meeting held on Saturday. In a statement, it said that booth-level officers (BLOs) will visit the homes of notice recipients to collect the required documents and upload them to the ECINET portal for consideration by the electoral registration officer (ERO). Electors will not ordinarily be required to appear personally before the ERO or assistant electoral registration officer.A hearing will be held only in exceptional cases, as determined by the ERO, and will preferably be conducted online. An elector may also authorise an adult family member to attend on their behalf, if required. The EC has directed officials to strengthen facilities for online hearings. “Online hearing has been sought for the state as it would ease the process even as documents are collected,” said an election official.CEO Maharashtra office had reached out to the commission to avoid unnecessary personal hearings. Under Rule 20(3) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, an ERO has the discretion to require a claimant, objector, or person against whom an objection has been made to appear personally.The office had suggested a new provision in ECINET, allowing the ERO/AERO to decide whether a personal hearing is necessary in each case, including a third option in their login to mark an elector as “exempted from hearings.” Personal hearings will now be required only when the documents submitted are insufficient, unsatisfactory, or not furnished. “The arrangement is intended to avoid unnecessary inconvenience and apprehension among electors,” the office said.While the state had announced special camps on Saturday and Sunday, Ganesh festivities muted participation in the camps for filing claims and objections. Civil rights groups and Congress had demanded an extension of the timeline due to the poor response.Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee has sought a two-month extension, citing delays in issuing notices and the festival period. It has also sought verification of the 1.54 crore voters in the ASD (absent, shifted, dead) category, a separate list of the 1.22 crore voters flagged for unmapped entries or logical discrepancies, prompt physical notices, and at least three opportunities for hearings. “There should be proper transparency, and no eligible voter should be left out,” a Congress functionary told TOI.The party also requested home visits for elderly, disabled, and medically incapacitated voters, acceptance of a wider range of documents, correction of BLO errors through Form 8, and mandatory notice and hearings before any deletion based on Form 7 objections. It has also demanded daily constituency-wise disclosure of Forms 6, 7 and 8, alongside the deployment of additional BLOs at booths with more than 600 electors.
