The Bombay High Court has held that names of existing voters cannot be deleted on the basis of a draft roll prepared under the Special Intensive Revision.

A division bench of Justices Amit S Jamsandekar and Valmiki Menezes said an administrative software system cannot override the statutory framework for electoral rolls.

The court was hearing a petition by Paresh Salgaonkar and five family members. Their names were deleted from the voter list in Goa’s Santa Cruz constituency.

The family had shifted to another house within the same constituency. They submitted Form 8 to change their address.

But the ERONET system could not find their voter ID records. The only option available was to reject the applications.

The Election Commission said its software did not allow Form 8 to be processed during the SIR enumeration phase. The family was asked to submit Form 6, which is meant for new voters.

“That’s a problem with your software,” the bench said. It asked how a voter’s name could be removed without a hearing.