EC scraps added SIR declaration from Form 6 after row over 'illegal' changes

The Election Commission has removed an additional SIR-related declaration from the online voter enrolment Form 6 in states where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has been completed, following a row over the "illegal" changes.The controversy erupted after a report in The Indian Express said that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally objected 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders related to the SIR exercise.The Commission has clarified that it has not made any legal changes to the original format of Form 6, which is the statutory form used by eligible citizens to apply for inclusion in the electoral roll.The additional declaration, introduced during the SIR process, required new applicants to furnish details linking themselves, their parents or 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 respective Chief Electoral Officer portals, in states where the SIR has concluded.Applicants in these states will fill in only the statutory Form 6. The additional declaration remains available in states and Union Territories where the SIR is still underway.The move follows a September 26 meeting of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.After the meeting, the poll panel said the declaration attached to Form 6 was meant specifically for the SIR and that, during the non-SIR period, forms applicable under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, would be used.FORM 6 CONTROVERSYThe issue became a point of controversy after Sandhu and Joshi raised objections to changes relating to Form 6.Joshi had objected on the grounds that a form prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, could not be modified without amending the rules. Sandhu 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 "illegal" and seeking its removal.The Election Commission, however, has maintained that Form 6 itself was not amended and that the declaration was an additional requirement specific to the SIR process.It has also said that the declaration was upheld by the Supreme Court in its judgment on the Bihar SIR.HOW WAS FORM 6 DIFFERENT DURING SIRDuring the SIR, applicants filling Form 6 were required to declare whether their names, or those of their parents or grandparents, were included in electoral rolls prepared during the previous SIR held in the early 2000s.The SIR-compliant process also required parental or grandparental details and made constituency and booth-related information mandatory.Applicants filling the form online were required to provide their family's assembly constituency number, polling booth number and serial number as per the previous SIR list.These details were not required in the original Form 6, which did not ask new applicants to provide information about their parents' or grandparents' past electoral records.The additional requirements had particularly raised documentation issues for young voters born after the 2000s, as well as voters whose names had previously been deleted and were seeking re-enrolment.Under the old Form 6, now restored in non-SIR states, new voters can register without the additional family-mapping declaration.Parent or guardian details of new voters are digitally recorded as part of the SIR process where applicable.The EC has said the additional declaration was introduced during SIR to prevent infiltration and ensure the accuracy of electoral rolls.- Ends(With PTI inputs)