The Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer has ordered the immediate statewide deactivation of all ECINET portal login credentials issued to computer assistants engaged across Electoral Registration Officer branches. The administrative intervention follows serious complaints regarding the alleged misuse of authorized access privileges in Pilibhit district. Issued on Saturday, the directive instructs all District Election Officers across Uttar Pradesh to ensure that portal access for computer assistants deployed at voter registration centres in every Assembly constituency is disabled without delay. Administrative heads have further been instructed to conduct strict verification of the deactivation process and submit mandatory compliance reports directly to the state election headquarters in Lucknow.
Immediate Termination of Outsourced Pilibhit Operator
Alongside the statewide digital lockdown, the Election Department ordered punitive administrative action against the outsourced computer assistant implicated in the breach within the 127-Pilibhit Assembly constituency. The contracted private service provider responsible for supplying personnel has been formally directed to terminate the employment of the individual immediately. Complaints emerging from the constituency pointed to severe irregularities and the potential compromise of official login privileges assigned to operational staff. Taking a precautionary posture to prevent further digital exposure, the state election leadership elected to revoke system access across all districts while investigators assess how credentials were used.
Allegations of Unauthorized Modifications to 13,150 Voter Names
The administrative crackdown follows formal complaints raised on October 21 by the Uttar Pradesh Congress concerning extensive irregularities in the Pilibhit Sadar Assembly constituency. The political outfit alleged that unauthorized alterations were carried out on the names of 13,150 electors within the published rolls. Notably, these purported modifications occurred while corresponding Electors Photo Identity Card numbers and serial entries remained entirely unchanged. In response to the representations, senior election authorities maintained that tampering with statutory records would draw rigorous scrutiny, warning that Electoral Registration Officers, Assistant Electoral Registration Officers, and subordinate technical staff would bear direct personal responsibility for discrepancies.
Legal Accountability Under the Representation of the People Act
To deter administrative misconduct, the Chief Electoral Officer warned that officials and technical staff found complicit in manipulating rolls would face prosecution under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. District Election Officers have been assigned the responsibility of auditing credential registries to confirm that no disabled operator account can be leveraged to access the digital voter platform. Although the comprehensive findings of the inquiry into the Pilibhit complaints have not yet been published, authorities framed the shutdown as a necessary measure to protect the integrity of the digital registration infrastructure and exclude unauthorized hands from electoral databases.
