The Election Commission (EC) on Friday tightened limits on the number of Form 7 applications, the statutory form used to seek deletion of a voter from the electoral roll, that an individual can file. The move comes in response to what the poll body described as “instances” of bulk filing of Form 7 applications that had caused “avoidable inconvenience” to electors.The decision comes amid criticism faced by the Commission over reported targeted bulk submissions of Form 7 applications.In instructions issued to the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of all states and UTs, the EC said several instances of bulk Form 7 filings had been brought to its notice. Under Rule 13(2) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, objections to the inclusion of a name in the electoral roll or requests for deletion of a name can be made only through Form 7. Such applications can be filed only by an elector registered in the same Assembly constituency.While the EC had already capped online Form 7 applications at six per individual at a time, subject to disposal of pending applications, there was no corresponding limit on forms submitted physically to Electoral Registration Officers (EROs).“With the intent to discourage bulk filing of objections by an individual elector, the commission has decided to prescribe limits on filing of Form 7 applications in both online and offline modes,” it added.Under the new rules, an individual can file up to 10 Form 7 applications, either online or offline, during the claims and objections period, which usually lasts about a month after publication of the draft electoral roll during revision exercises such as the Special Summary Revision (SSR) or Special Intensive Revision (SIR).When no revision exercise is underway and electoral rolls are under continuous updation, an individual can file a maximum of five Form 7 applications per month, the EC said.