New Delhi, Oct. 9 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday issued an official instruction to all Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of States and Union Territories to impose strict caps on individual filings of Form-7 applications, used for objecting to names included or proposed for inclusion in electoral rolls, to prevent abuse of the process.

The decision stems from repeated instances where individual electors filed Form-7 objections in bulk on unsubstantiated grounds. This practice caused severe inconvenience to genuine voters whose names were challenged, while creating unnecessary administrative burdens for field-level election staff.

Under Rule 13(2) of the Registration of Electors Rules (RER), 1960, an objection or deleti...