Amid Row, EC Scraps SIR Declaration From Form 6 in States Where Revision is Complete

The Election Commission has removed an additional declaration linked to the Special Intensive Revision from the online Form 6 used by citizens to apply for inclusion in electoral rolls in states where the revision exercise has been completed. The move comes amid objections over the legality of adding extra requirements to the statutory form and restores the original Form 6 process in states where the SIR is no longer underway. The additional declaration had been introduced during the revision process and required new applicants to provide information connecting themselves or their parents and grandparents to electoral rolls prepared during an earlier intensive revision.

The declaration has now been removed from the ECINET app and portal, as well as the websites of the respective Chief Electoral Officers, in states where the SIR process has concluded. Applicants in these states will now be required to submit only the statutory Form 6. However, the additional declaration continues to be available in states and Union Territories where the SIR exercise is still in progress. The decision followed a September 26 meeting involving Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. After the meeting, the poll panel said the additional declaration was specifically linked to the SIR process and that forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, would be used during periods when SIR was not being conducted.

The issue had become controversial after objections were raised within the Election Commission over changes associated with Form 6. Vivek Joshi had objected that a form prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, could not be modified without an amendment to the rules, with Sukhbir Singh Sandhu concurring with the view. Sandhu later raised another objection after the SIR-linked declaration was incorporated into the online Form 6 process on ECINET, describing the change as illegal and seeking its removal. The Election Commission has maintained that Form 6 itself was not amended and that the additional declaration was only a requirement introduced for the SIR exercise. The Commission has also said that the declaration was upheld by the Supreme Court in its judgment concerning the Bihar SIR.

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During the SIR process, applicants using Form 6 were required to state whether their names, or those of their parents or grandparents, appeared in electoral rolls prepared during the previous intensive revision conducted in the early 2000s. The SIR-linked process also required applicants to provide additional family and electoral information, including the assembly constituency number, polling booth number and serial number associated with the earlier electoral roll. These details were not part of the original Form 6, which allowed new applicants to seek enrolment without providing information about the previous electoral records of their parents or grandparents.

The additional requirements had raised documentation concerns, particularly for younger voters born after the early-2000s revision and for people whose names had previously been removed from electoral rolls and who were seeking re-enrolment. With the original Form 6 restored in states where the SIR has concluded, new applicants in those states will no longer have to provide the additional family-mapping declaration associated with the revision exercise. Parent or guardian information of new voters continues to be digitally recorded as part of the SIR process in states where the exercise remains applicable.

The Election Commission has said the additional declaration was introduced as part of the SIR process to help prevent infiltration and improve the accuracy of electoral rolls. Its removal from states where the revision has been completed means that applicants there will return to the statutory Form 6 requirements, while the additional SIR-linked process will continue in states and Union Territories where the electoral roll revision is still underway. The decision follows weeks of discussion and objections surrounding the relationship between the statutory form and the additional requirements introduced during the special revision exercise.

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