PANAJI: The Election Commission has withdrawn the additional Special Intensive Revision (SIR)-related declaration from online Form 6 in states where the electoral roll revision has been completed, clarifying that the requirement was meant to apply only during the SIR exercise.
The declaration, which requires new applicants to provide details linking themselves, their parents or grandparents to electoral rolls prepared during an earlier intensive revision, will continue to appear on the ECINET portal in states and Union Territories where SIR is still underway.
In states where 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 will now have to fill only the statutory Form 6 prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
The decision 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 EC said the additional declaration attached to Form 6 was specific to the SIR exercise and that, during the non-SIR period, the forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, would be used.
The move comes amid reported objections from Sandhu and Joshi over changes made to the online Form 6 process. Joshi had objected to changes to the statutory form, arguing that Form 6, prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, could not be modified without an amendment to the rules. Sandhu had concurred with him, according to reports.
After the SIR-related declaration was added to the online Form 6 process on ECINET, Sandhu again objected, describing the change as “unauthorised/illegal” and seeking its removal. The EC, however, maintained that Form 6 itself had not been amended and that the declaration was an additional requirement applicable specifically during SIR. It also said the declaration had been upheld by the Supreme Court in its judgment concerning the Bihar SIR.
The EC subsequently said all orders relating to the SIR had received the unanimous approval of all three Election Commissioners.
