NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Wednesday directed the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in Tamil Nadu to register cases against office-bearers of any political party [the Commission did not mention the name of any party] that filed bulk applications for inclusion in the electoral rolls in the 165 constituencies in the State.

Acting on the basis of the report submitted by a two-member team that visited the State following large-scale "stuffing of names" on the last date of filing of applications, the Commission directed that "all cases of claim application/objections constituting part of bulk applications, which are found to be not genuine either on local verification or after initial scrutiny should be referred to the ERO for filing necessary FIRs with the police against the office-bearers of the party which had filed those applications for penal action under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act."

The Commission issued special instructions for disposal of claims and objections. In the first instance, the ERO must prepare a list of all claims and objections received from May 10 to May 30 and display it on the notice board. A copy of the list is to be supplied to each recognised political party in the State by the forenoon of June 9 with a notice that they should file their objections by June 20.

While disposing of these claims and objections, the ERO shall reject summarily any application/objection, which is not signed by the applicant/objector or does not carry his or her thumb impression authenticating that application. The same position will obtain where the present address has been left completely blank in the application form or the applicant is below the age of 18 as on January 1, 2005. The remaining claims and objections shall be thoroughly scrutinised and locally verified by the verifying agencies.

In order to ensure that all claims and objections are disposed of by the EROs in accordance with the law and relevant instructions, the CEO shall depute a number of supervisory teams from his office to check the fieldwork done by the verifying officers and supervisors and the action taken by the EROs.

Under no circumstances the supervisors would seek the assistance of influential persons or persons with political lineage in the locality and if any assistance was required, it should be sought from the immediate neighbours of the applicant. The Commission would also send a team of its own officers from New Delhi to further test check the work done by the electoral registration authorities. All claims/objections must be disposed of by the ERO in every constituency not later than July 15.

No electoral roll shall be finally published by any ERO without the prior approval of the Commission. The Commission warned that strict action would be taken against officials for any dereliction of duty.

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