New Delhi, September 30: The Election Commission has withdrawn the additional Special Intensive Revision (SIR)-related declaration from the online voter enrolment Form 6 in states where the SIR exercise has already been completed.
The move comes days after the full Commission decided that the additional declaration would apply only during the SIR exercise.
The declaration required new voters to provide details linking themselves, their parents or grandparents to electoral rolls prepared during an earlier intensive revision. It will continue to remain available on the ECINET portal in states and Union Territories where the SIR process is still underway.
In states where the exercise has concluded, the additional declaration has been removed from the ECINET app and portal, as well as from the respective Chief Electoral Officer websites. Applicants in these states will now be required to submit only the statutory Form 6 prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
The decision follows a September 26 meeting of the full Election Commission, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
Following the meeting, the Commission said the additional declaration attached to Form 6 was specifically intended for the SIR exercise and that, outside the SIR period, forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, would be used.
The Form 6 issue had triggered controversy after Election Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi reportedly raised objections to changes related to the voter enrolment form.
Form 6 is the statutory form used by eligible citizens to apply for inclusion in the electoral roll.
Joshi had objected that a form prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, could not be modified without amending the rules. Sandhu had also concurred with his objection.
After the SIR declaration was added to the online Form 6 process on ECINET, Sandhu reportedly objected again, calling the change “unauthorised/illegal” and seeking its removal.
The Election Commission, however, has maintained that Form 6 itself was not amended, describing the declaration as an additional requirement specifically linked to SIR. The Commission has also stated that the declaration was upheld by the Supreme Court in its judgment concerning the Bihar SIR.
The September 26 decisions came amid reports that Sandhu and Joshi had raised objections on multiple occasions concerning SIR-related decisions and orders. The Commission, in its September 26 statement, maintained that the orders concerning SIR had the unanimous approval of all three Election Commissioners.
