The Election Commission has withdrawn the additional Special Intensive Revision (SIR)-related declaration from the online voter enrolment Form 6 in states where the exercise has been completed, days after the full Commission decided that the requirement would apply only during the revision process.
The declaration, which requires new applicants to provide details linking themselves or their parents or grandparents to electoral rolls prepared during an earlier intensive revision, remains available on the ECINET portal in states and Union Territories where the SIR is still underway.
In states where the SIR has been completed, the additional declaration has been removed from the ECINET app and portal, as well as from the respective Chief Electoral Officer portals. Applicants seeking enrolment are now required to fill only the statutory Form 6 prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
The move follows a September 26 meeting of the full Commission, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
Following the meeting, the poll panel said the declaration attached to Form 6 was intended specifically for the SIR exercise and that “for non-SIR period, the Forms applicable as per Rules (the Registration of Electors Rules 1960) will be used”.
The issue had become a point of controversy after it emerged that Sandhu and Joshi had raised objections to changes concerning Form 6.
Form 6 is the statutory form used by eligible citizens to apply for inclusion in the electoral roll. Joshi had objected to changes to the form, arguing that a form prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, could not be modified without an amendment to the rules. Sandhu had concurred with him.
After the SIR-related declaration was incorporated into the online Form 6 process on ECINET, Sandhu again objected, describing the change as “unauthorised/illegal” and seeking its removal.
In its public statements, however, the Election Commission has maintained that Form 6 itself was not amended and that the declaration was an additional requirement specific to the SIR exercise. It has also said the declaration was upheld by the Supreme Court in its judgment concerning the Bihar SIR.
The September 26 decisions came after The Indian Express reported that Sandhu and Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the previous 10 months to decisions and orders concerning the SIR, which they allegedly said had been issued without their knowledge or recommendation.
The Commission, in its September 26 statement, maintained that orders relating to the SIR had received the unanimous approval of all three Election Commissioners.
(With inputs from PTI)