399/2023-2024

Aizawl, the 27^th March, 2024: The State Election Commission, Mizoram has decided to undertake Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls for General Election to 99 (ninety nine) Village Councils under Lai Autonomous District Council 2024 as provided under sub-rule (3) & (5) of Rule 3 of the Lai Autonomous District Council (Election to Village Councils) Rules, 2011 as amended, with reference to 1^st April, 2024 as the qualifying date, as per the List of List of Village Councils and Schedule indicated below:-

I. List of Village Councils:

II. Schedule for Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls: 

The following provisions shall be scrupulously followed while preparing Electoral Rolls or accepting/disposing the claims and objections filed in prescribed Forms (Form II,III & IV) for inclusion, deletion or correction of entries in the electoral rolls.

1. Qualifications for registration in Electoral Rolls:

              1)    Subject to the provisions under the relevant Rules, a person shall be qualified for registration in an Electoral Roll if he-

a)    is a Citizen of India;

b)    is a member of a Scheduled Tribe;

c)     is a permanent resident  of the respective Village Council ;

d)    is not below the age of 18 (eighteen) years on the qualifying date, i.e. 01.01.2024;

e)     is not of unsound mind and does not stand so declared by any competent court;

f)     is not disqualified from voting under the provisions of any law relating to corrupt practices and other offences in connection with elections.

          2)    The name of any person who becomes so disqualified after having been registered in an Electoral Roll shall forthwith be struck off from the Electoral Roll in which it is registered.

2. No person to be registered in more than one Village Constituency: No person shall be entitled to be registered in the Electoral Roll for more than one constituency at a time.

3. No person to be registered more than once in any Village Constituency: No person shall be entitled to be registered in the Electoral Roll for any constituency more than once.

4. Segregation of Electoral Rolls : The Electoral Registration Officer will segregate all parts of the latest electoral rolls of the relevant MDC constituency into as many parts as the number of the Village Council   contained therein each part conforming to one Village Council after carefully checking out the boundaries of the bifurcated Village Council as notified by the LADC authorities. If required, relevant parts may be taken out from the neighboring MDC constituencies if area of a Village Council falls in more than one MDC constituency. After segregation of the parts of the District Council electoral roll it will be treated as the draft electoral roll for the relevant Village Council constituency.

5. Preparation of Electoral Roll : The Electoral Roll for the 99 (ninety nine) Village Council Constituencies shall be prepared with reference to the qualifying date as aforementioned. As provided under Rule 3 (3) of the Lai Autonomous District Council (Election to Village Councils) Rules, 2011 as amended, the latest electoral roll for election to the District Council, as may be amended to omit those who have ceased to be residents of the village shall be the electoral roll for election to a Village Council. The Electoral Rolls so integrated, prepared and published in accordance with these provisions may be referred to as the Mother roll of the constituency.

6. Electoral Roll not to be divided in parts: The Electoral Roll of a Village Council constituency shall not be divided in parts but shall be numbered consecutively beginning from the number one. Where there are Sub-Villages in a Village Council constituency, the Electoral Registration Officer may direct to enter the names of the electors locality-wise. This, however, shall not be compulsory but shall be left at the discretion of the Electoral Registration Officer. In any case, the serial numbers of the electors shall be consecutive all through.

7. Access to certain register : For the purpose of preparing electoral roll or deciding any claim or objection to electoral roll, the Electoral Registration Officer/Asst. Electoral Registration Officer and any person employed by him for the purpose shall have access to any register of births and deaths and to the admission register of any educational institution, and it shall be the duty of every person in charge of any such register to give to the said officer or person such information and such extracts from the said register as he may require.

8. Publication of Electoral Roll in draft : As soon as the segregation and integration of Electoral Roll for a constituency is ready, the Electoral Registration Office shall publish it in draft, by making a copy thereof available for inspection and displaying a notice in Form I:- 

          a)       at his Office, and

          b)       at such place in the constituency as may be specified by him for the purpose. 

The District Election Officer shall convene a meeting of representatives of all political parties and NGOs on the day of draft publication and the District Election Officer should explain the Schedule in detail and obtain their co-operation.

The District Election Officer and Electoral Registration Officers shall ensure that adequate number of copies of electoral rolls are printed and kept ready at least one day before the publication of Electoral Rolls in draft. The Electoral Registration Officer shall also supply free of cost two copies of each draft roll to every Political Party recognized/registered by the Election Commission of India and proper acknowledgement shall be obtained and kept in record.

Further, two printed copies of the Draft Roll shall be given to each Village Level Officer/Designated Officer with a direction that they shall, without fail, display it at the designated Polling Station for public inspection. 

9. Period for lodging claims and objections: Every claim for inclusion of name in the roll and every objection to an entry therein shall be lodged within the stipulated period from the date of publication of the roll in draft.

10. Form for claims and objections:

1)       Every claim shall be in Form II and signed by the person desiring his name to be included in the roll.

2)       Every objection to the inclusion of a name in the roll shall be in Form III and preferred only by a person whose name is already included in the roll in which the name objected to appears.

3)       Every objection to a particular or particulars in an entry in the roll shall be in Form IV and preferred only by the person to whom that entry relates.

11. Manner of lodging claims and objections: Every claim and objection shall-

1)    either be presented to the Electoral Registration Officer/Asst. Electoral Registration Officer or to any person employed by him in this behalf who shall forward it with such remarks as he considers proper to the Electoral Registration Officer/Asst. Electoral Registration Officer; or

2)       be sent by post to the Electoral Registration Officer/Asst. Electoral Registration Officer.

12. Disposal of claims and objections : The Electoral Registration Officer/Asst. Electoral Registration Office shall, after such inquiry/hearing  at the designated location as he thinks fit, take each case of claim or objection into consideration on merit and decide by accepting or rejecting each case to the best of his own judgment, and within the stipulated period from the last date of the period for lodging such claims and objections.

13. Final publication of roll:

1)       After disposal of claims and objections, the Electoral Registration Officer shall prepare final list of electors and publish the roll, together with the list of amendments, by making a complete copy thereof available for inspection and displaying a notice in Form V at his Office.

2)       On such publication of the roll, together with the list of amendments thereof, shall be the Electoral Roll of the concerned Village Council constituency.

The State Election Commission has laid emphasis on preparation of pure and error free electoral rolls through a transparent process. Towards this end, the Commission makes it clear that, the convenience of citizens should get precedence over convenience of administration while preparing/revising/updating electoral rolls. The Electoral Registration Officers, Asst. Electoral Registration Officers, etc, should, therefore, apply their mind judiciously while accepting or rejecting an application for inclusion of name at a given address on the basis of the documents furnished by the applicant. It is further emphasized that it would be impractical to insist on production of documents in support of address only in the name of the applicant. Reliance must be placed on documents with that address in the name of immediate relation like spouse, parents etc., of the applicant as proof of address and identity. However, utmost care has to be taken to ensure that there is no abnormal increase or decrease of voters as a result of the revision.

It must be ensured that only Government Servants who are well conversant with preparation of Assembly/District Council Electoral Rolls   are appointed to function as Village Level Officer (VLO)/Designated Officer(DO)  for each Village Council Constituency.        The State Election Commission further directs that the appeals against the decision of the Electoral Registration Officer be filed before the District Election Officer (DEO) & Appellate Authority within 1 (one) day from the date of announcement of the decision of the Electoral Registration Officer/Asst. Electoral Registration Officer and appeal thereto shall be decided by the DEO & Appellate Authority. After the Appeals are decided by the DEO & Appellate Authority, list of names should be prepared for printing and publishing.