A 33-year-old man in Patiala – resident at the same address since birth, with his mother registered as a voter at that same address for decades – is being asked by his Booth Level Officer to produce proof of where a qualifying relative was registered as a voter in 2002.

The Election Commission’s enumeration form allows legacy linkage through a father, mother, grandfather, or grandmother – not just the father, as many Booth Level Officers have been incorrectly demanding in the field.

In this case, the obvious qualifying relative is his father – a retired senior government officer and ex-serviceman who, as the law expressly provides for service personnel, was registered at various posting addresses during his career rather than at the family home.

His Electors Photo Identity Card, or EPIC, bears an old posting address with no connection to the family’s Patiala home. The son has voted in multiple elections over 15 years without incident. His mother’s registration at the family address is uncontested – and the mother is herself a valid qualifying relative under the form’s own instructions.

Yet neither the mother’s registration nor the son’s 15-year record has been treated as sufficient. The Booth Level Officer is fixated on the father’s posting-address EPIC. That fixation...

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