PANAJI: Goa Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Goel has defended the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process before the Bombay High Court at Goa, opposing a petition filed by St Cruz resident Paresh Salgaonkar and five family members over their non-inclusion in the electoral roll.
Salgaonkar, who claims to have been a voter in St Cruz since 1995, has challenged the rejection of his Form 8 application for shifting his electoral entry to a new address. He has also questioned why he was subsequently required to seek fresh registration as a voter.
The petitioners have argued that their names could not be excluded without following due procedure, including notice, verification and an opportunity to present their case. They have sought restoration of their electoral entries or reconsideration of their Form 8 applications.
The CEO, however, has disputed the claim that the voters were deleted from the existing final electoral roll. According to his affidavit, their names were not carried forward into the Draft Electoral Roll prepared during the SIR exercise.
The affidavit states that Salgaonkar’s existing electoral entry was linked to Part No. 29, while he had shifted permanently to a rented residence under Part No. 25. Officials maintain that the Booth Level Officer was required to deliver the SIR enumeration form to the address recorded in the existing electoral roll.
Authorities further claim that Salgaonkar did not submit the required enumeration form by the December 11, 2025 deadline. Consequently, his name was absent from the Draft Electoral Roll published on December 16 and was later included in the ASDD list.
The CEO has also defended the handling of Salgaonkar’s Form 8 application, arguing that the form could not be treated as a routine address-shifting request after his name was not included in the draft roll.
The petitioners have sought directions to the Election Commission of India and the Goa CEO to restore their electoral entries or reconsider their claims, with the matter now before the High Court.
