handbook for presiding officers - Chief Electoral Officer, Govt. of Sikkim

8. Clerical and printing errors in the roll to be overlooked
The particulars in respect of an elector as entered in the electoral roll are
sometimes incorrectly printed or have become out of date e.g., regarding the
exact age of the voter. You should overlook mere clerical and printing errors
in any entry relating to an elector in the poll, provided that you are otherwise
satisfied about the identity of the person claiming to be the elector, according
to other particulars entered in electoral roll. When the electoral roll has been
prepared in more than one language and the name of a person has not been
included in the marked copy of the electoral roll, such a person should be
allowed to vote if his name appears in the version of the electoral roll in the
other language for the same area. An entry in respect of every such elector
should be noted by you in ink on the marked copy of the electoral roll.
9. Fact of enrolment of a voter not to be questioned
So long as the identity of a voter is established to your satisfaction, he has the
right to vote. No question can be raised at the polling station about the
eligibility of such a person to be a voter. For instance, you are not entitled to
hold any inquiry into the question whether he is over 18 years of age or
ordinarily resides in the constituency.
10. Declaration of elector about his age
10.1 But in the case of a person whom you consider much below the qualifying
age, you must be clearly satisfied about his claim of being an elector with
reference to the entry in the electoral roll relating to him.
10.2 If you are prima facie satisfied about his identity and the fact of inclusion of his
name in the electoral roll but consider him to be below the minimum voting
age, you should obtain a declaration as in Annexure X from that elector about
his age on the 1st day of January of the year with reference to which the
existing electoral roll of the constituency has been prepared/revised. Before
obtaining the declaration from such elector, you should inform him of the
penal provision in section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950,
for making false declaration (Extract of Section 31 has been given in
Annexure I).
10.3 You should also prepare a list of voters from whom you have obtained such
declarations in Part I of Annexure XI.. You should also maintain a list in Part II
of the said Annexure XI of those voters who refuse to give the aforesaid
declaration and go away without casting their votes. After the close of the poll,
the abovementioned list and the declarations should be kept together in a
separate cover.