NEW DELHI: As announced in the official statement clarifying the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) position on the attached declaration form with the statutory Form 6, the poll panel has withdrawn the same in states where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise has been completed.
The declaration form has been one the main reasons for the controversy surrounding the ECI following media reports suggesting that two Election Commissioners – SS Sandhu and Vivek Joshi allegedly objected to its insertion with Form 6.
The declaration required new applicants to provide details establishing a link between themselves, their parents or grandparents and electoral rolls prepared during an earlier intensive revision. It continues to be available on the ECINET portal in states and Union Territories where the SIR exercise is still underway.
In states where the SIR has concluded, the additional declaration has been removed from the ECINET app and portal, as well as the respective Chief Electoral Officer websites. Applicants seeking inclusion in the electoral roll are now required to submit only the statutory Form 6 prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
The change follows a September 26 meeting of the full Commission, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and two commissioners - Sandhu and Joshi. After the meeting, the poll panel said the additional declaration was specifically linked to the SIR exercise and that, outside the SIR period, forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, would be used.
The Form 6 requirement had triggered controversy after Sandhu and Joshi raised objections to changes in the online enrolment process.
Form 6 is the statutory application through which eligible citizens seek inclusion in electoral rolls. Joshi had reportedly argued that a form prescribed under the 1960 Rules could not be altered without an amendment to those rules, which Sandhu had supported.
After the SIR-related declaration was added to the online Form 6 process on ECINET, Sandhu, according to media reports, had again objected, calling the change “unauthorised/illegal” and sought its removal.
The Election Commission, however, has maintained that Form 6 itself was not amended. According to the Commission, the declaration was an additional requirement applicable only to the SIR exercise. It has also said the requirement was upheld by the Supreme Court in its judgment on the Bihar SIR.
The Commission, in its September 26 statement, also rejected any suggestion of a lack of unanimity, maintaining that all orders relating to the SIR had received the approval of all three Election Commissioners.
