OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER, H.P.

BLOCK NO. 38, SDA COMPLEX, KASUMPATI, SHIMLA-171009

CITIZEN’S CHARTER

1. YOUR RIGHTS:

You are entitled to be an Elector in the Photo Electoral Rolls of your Assembly Constituency if you are:

1. 1. Citizen of India;
   2. Ordinarily resident in a Constituency;
   3. 18 years or above of age as on the qualifying dates as 1st January, 1st April, 1st July and 1st October of each year and
   4. Not otherwise disqualified under the provisions of any law relating to corrupt practices and other offenses in connection with elections.

Note:- No person shall be entitled to be registered in the electoral rolls for more than one constituency or more than once in any electoral roll for an Assembly Constituency.

2. INCLUSION, DELETION, AND MODIFICATION OF NAME IN THE PHOTO ELECTORAL ROLLS:

Form 6: Any citizen of India whose name is not included in the Photo Electoral Roll of the Assembly Constituency under which his/ her residence falls but satisfies the above-mentioned criteria may apply on Form-6 (in duplicate) to the ERO(SDM) of the concerned Assembly Constituency for the inclusion of his/ her name along with one passport size colored photograph and the following documents:-

1. Date of Birth (With Documentary Proof)

Fill up the date of birth in figures in the space provided in dd/mm/yyyy.

Proofs of date of birth to be attached are as under:

1. Birth certificate issued by a Municipal Authorities or district office of the Registrar of Births & Deaths or Baptism certificate; or
2. Birth certificate from the school (Govt. / Recognised) last attended by the applicant or any other recognised educational institution; or
3. If a person is class 10 or more pass, he should give a copy of the marksheet of class 10 , if it contains date of birth as a proof of date of birth; or
4. Marksheet of class 8 if it contains date of birth; or
5. Marksheet of class 5 if it contains date of birth; or

6. A declaration in prescribed format given in Annexure-1 made by either of his parents if the person is not educated till class 10 (In those cases where parental declaration is given as proof of age, the applicant will have to present himself for verification before BLO/ERO/AERO); or
7. A certificate of his age given by a sarpanch of the concerned Gram Panchayat or by a member of the concerned Municipal Corporation / Municipal Committee, if the person is not educated till class 10 and both the parents are not alive.

Note: Documentary proof of age will be required only in those cases where age of the applicant is between 18 and 21 years. In all other cases declaration of his age by the applicant will be taken as proof of age.

2. Place of Ordinary Residence

Fill up the full and complete postal address including PIN code where you are ordinarily residing and want to get registered in the space provided.

Proof of ordinary residence to be attached are as under:

1. Bank / Kisan / Post Office current Pass Book, or
2. Applicants Ration  Card / Passport  / Driving License  /  Income Tax Return filed or Assessment Order, or
3. Latest Water / Telephone / Electricity / Gas Connection Bill with address, either in the name of applicant or that of his / her immediate relation like parents etc., or
4. Postal department’s posts received / delivered in the applicant’s name at the given address.

3. Also give your full name and address on the acknowledgement and intimation portions and give your mobile number and e-mail address in the Form.

Form 6A:  Every overseas elector, i.e., Indian citizen who is absenting from his place of ordinary residence in India owing to employment, education or otherwise, and has not acquired citizenship of any other country and who is not included in the electoral roll, is entitled to have his/her name registered in the electoral roll of the constituency in which his/her place of residence in India as mentioned in his/her passport is located.

In terms of rule 8A of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, every overseas elector whose place of residence in India is located in the State of Himachal Pradesh who has completed 18 years of age, and is desirous of registering his/her name in the electoral roll, can submit claim application in Form-6A for registration in the electoral roll of the constituency in which his/her place of residence as shown in the passport is located. The claim application in Form-6A may be either submitted in person directly to the

registration officer of the constituency concerned or sent to such registration officer by post alongwith the documents mentioned in Form-6A and the guidelines. When the claim application is sent by post, it should be accompanied by photocopies of the relevant pages of the passport duly self- attested.

Form 7:      Application for objecting to inclusion of name or seeking deletion of name from Photo Electoral Rolls.

Form 8:      Application for correction of name or any particular of an elector in the Photo Electoral Rolls.

Service Electors

As per Sub-Section (8) of Section 20 of the R.P. Act, 1950 service qualification means:-

1. Being a member of the Armed Forces of the Union; or
2. Being a member of a force to which provisions of the Army Act, 1950 (46 of 1950), have been made applicable whether with or without modification;
3. Being a member of an Armed Police Force of a State, and serving outside that State; or
4. Being a person who is employed under the Government of India, in a post outside India,

If any person having the above service qualifications desires to be registered in the last part of roll for the constituency in which he would have been ordinarily resident, he shall submit a statement in duplicate in one of the forms 2, 2A and 3, as may be applicable along with the “Declaration” to the Electoral Registration Officer (SDM) of the constituency through his record office.

Form-2: Statement as to place of ordinary residence by a member of the Armed Forces.

Form-2A: Statement as to place of ordinary residence by a member of an Armed Police Force of a State who is serving outside that State.

Form-3: Statement as to place of ordinary residence by a person employed under the Government of India in a post outside India.

The wife of service voter belonging to any of the four categories mentioned above and ordinarily residing with him is also eligible to be registered in the last part of Electoral Roll as an elector along with her husband.

However, if any service voter does not want the above facility of enrolment in his native place, he may get himself registered as an ordinary elector at the place of his service/posting at the time of house-to-house enumeration or by filing claim in Form-6.

CAUTION:- It may be noted that any person who furnishes false information can be prosecuted under section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which prescribes imprisonment up to one year or fine or with both for such offence.

    e-Registration :

Election Department has introduced e-registration facility on the website "voterportal.eci.gov.in" for the new electors. Any eligible citizen who fulfills all the requirements as shown in Para-I can get himself/herself enrolled in photo-electoral roll by filling up Form-6 online on official website of Election Department i.e. “ceohimachal.nic.in”. Citizens can also fill Form-7, for deletions of name form Electoral Roll & Form-8 for Shifting of Residence or Correction of Entries Electoral Roll or Issue of Replacement EPIC without correction or Request for marking as Person with Disability, as the case may be. Citizens can also download these forms from department’s official website and submit them to the concerned Electoral Registration Officer (SDM) for inclusion, deletion, modification and transposition of his/her name, as the case may be. Our e-mail address is ‘election-hp@nic.in’.

Search Facility

Photo Electoral Rolls of all 68-Assembly Constituencies have been uploaded on the website of Election Department to enable general public to have access to it. Search facility has also been provided on the website "voterportal.eci.gov.in" for the citizens of Himachal Pradesh to search their names in the Electoral Rolls.

There are two search facilities viz (a) Search by Voter Card No. (b) Search by Name. (a) By entering Voter Identity Card No. and District, a person can ascertain his/her name, relation name, A.C. name, Serial No. and Polling Station location. (b) A person can ascertain his/her Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) No. by entering his/her name, name of his/her district & relatives name.

Call Center (Public Grievance Related to Elections)

On the directions of Election Commission of India, New Delhi, the department has established “Call Center” for the convenience of public. Any person from any part of the country can lodge his/her complaint relating to Electoral Rolls, Elector’s Photo Identity Card, Violation of Model Code of Conduct, etc.  by registering  himself/herself on  the website "voters.eci.gov.in/home/ngsp" using his/her mobile number or call on our toll free number “1950”. Landline and mobile phone users within the State can file their complaint by dialing “1950”. However landline/mobile users from outside the state may register their complaints by dialing “0177-1950”. Election Department Call Center staff is available for your services from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on all working days.

Lok Mitra Kendras (Common Service Centers)

The Common Service Centre (CSC) popularly known as Lokmitra Kendra project in Himachal Pradesh aims at establishing 3366 e-Governance centers at Panchayat level in the state. The following services of Election Department are available at these centers:-

1. 1. Inclusion of name of eligible electors in the Electoral Rolls through Form 6 with Photo,
   2. Deletion of ineligible name in the Electoral Rolls through Form 7,
   3. Correction of particulars of electors already registered in the Electoral Rolls through Form 8,
   4. Transposition of entry in the Electoral Roll from one polling station to another polling station within the Assembly constituency through Form 8A, and
   5. Preparation of Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) including duplicate EPIC.

3. TIME-BOUND DISPOSAL OF APPLICATIONS:

Citizens can lodge applications for inclusion, deletion, transposition and modifications of entries in the photo electoral rolls at any time under Continuous Updation process of Electoral Rolls and ordinarily the applications received in a calendar month will be disposed off during next month and the manuscript got prepared for every part separately in duplicate by hand by 25th of that month. At the end of every calendar month and by 7th of the following month, one copy of the manuscripts will be transferred to the District Election

Officer for data entry in the computerized working copy of the photo electoral rolls. However, no applications will be disposed off in the period from the last date of filing nominations for any election till the conclusion of the election process. Whenever, a revision programme is announced by the Election Commission of India, the entire process of disposing claims and objections will be as per the approved programme.

4. ELECTOR’S PHOTO IDENTITY CARD (EPIC):

After your name is registered in the Photo Electoral Roll of the concerned Assembly Constituency, you become eligible for issue of Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC).If the name of an elector exists in the PER and his/her photo/image does not exist in the PER or if the name of an elector exist in the PER and however, he has not been issued with an EPIC in such cases, he/she should submit a passport size photograph to the ERO/BLO. The ERO/BLO will ensure that his image is printed in PER or EPIC prepared or delivered to him/her. Initially the card is issued free of cost. In case, the EPIC is lost or mutilated or if the elector himself desires any modification of particulars, he can get it prepared again by paying a sum of Rs.25/- for a duplicate card. The photo-identity cards so prepared will be distributed among the electors within 15 days through the BLOs.

5. ISSUE OF CERTIFIED COPIES OF ENTRY IN THE PHOTO ELECTORAL ROLL & PERMISSION FOR INSPECTION OF ENTRIES IN PHOTO ELECTORAL ROLL:

The following norms have been fixed for the issue of certified copies of Photo Electoral Rolls and inspection thereof: -

FEE:

1. 1. Inspection fee of Photo Electoral Rolls: Rs. 1/-for    the   first   hour   and thereafter Rs.0.50  for  the subsequent hours or part thereof.
   2. Extract of Photo Electoral Rolls: Rs. 2/- for the first 25 entries or less  and     thereafter  Rs.1/-  for subsequent    50   entries    or   part thereof.
   3. Additional urgent fee: Rs. 2/-per applicant
   4. The Photo Electoral Rolls Data in Hindi are also available in the office of CEO, Himachal Pradesh, Block No. 38-SDA Complex, Shimla-9 in the form of CDs. The rate for one District is Rs. 100/- each.

All the above mentioned Election related services except CDs are available to the public at the offices of ERO (SDMs)/DEOs. For submission of all types of applications and collection of certificate/Photo I- Cards etc. any citizen can contact the office between 10 AM to 5 PM on all the working days. Except for the certified copies of entry and inspection of electoral rolls, duplicate EPICs, all election related services are available free of cost.

6. QUALIFICATIONS FOR  MEMEBERSHIP  OF  PARLIAMENT  AND OF THE STATE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY:

A person shall be qualified to be chosen to fill a seat in Parliament or State Legislative Assembly if he:-

1. is a citizen of India
2. is not less than twenty five years of age, in case of House of People/State Assembly, and not less than thirty years of age for Rajya Sabha.
3. is not otherwise disqualified under the relevant laws.

A candidate not set up by a Recognized Political Party shall get his nomination paper subscribed by 10 proposers, being electors of that constituency. For a Parliamentary Constituency, the amount of security depositis Rs. 10,000/- (Rs. 5,000/- for SC/ST). In case of Assembly Constituency and Rajya Sabha these amounts are Rs. 5,000/- and Rs. 2,500/- respectively.

7. QUALIFICATIONS     FOR    ELECTION    AS   PRESIDENT    &   VICE PRESIDENT:

No person shall be eligible for election as President/Vice President unless he:-

1. is a citizen of India;
2. has completed the age of 35 years;
3. is qualified for election as member of the House of the People and for Vice President, as a member of the Council of States.

8. MAXIMUM LIMIT OF ELECTION EXPENSES IN ANY ONE:

9. YOUR DUTIES:

To be an ideal, vigilant citizen of Indian democracy:

1. Get yourself enrolled as an elector and take part in polls, if you satisfy all the necessary conditions.
2. Do inform the Electoral Registration Officer (SDM) concerned on the prescribed proforma:
   1. On changing your residence.
   2. On noticing in the Photo Electoral Roll the names of members of family of your neighbors who have shifted to some other place to reside.
   3. On noticing the name of a dead person in the Photo Electoral Roll,
   4. On coming across duplicate entries in Photo Electoral Roll,

10. GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM:

The Election Department has on line grievance redressal facility known as “e-Samadhan”. Any grievance pertaining to the department can be entered in e-samadhan by logging on to http.//admis. hp.nic.in/esamadhan. The Election Department has also constituted a Grievance Redressal Mechanism at State as well as District/Sub-Division level as under: