Election Commission Drops Additional SIR Declaration From Form 6 Process After Internal Objections
Election Commission Drops Additional SIR Declaration From Form 6 Process After Internal Objections
New Delhi, September 30 : Election Commission of India (ECI) cancelled the extra declaration linked to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) which had to be submitted together with the online Form 6 in those states and Union Territories where the revision process has already been completed or is at the moment not being carried out.
The alteration, effective from September 30, has the effect that people who wish to apply for re-enrolment on the electoral roll in those states will complete the standard statutory Form 6 without having to include the additional SIR declaration.
Form 6 is the application form which eligible citizens are required to use if they wish to have their names included on the electoral roll.
The extra declaration has required applicants to give details linking themselves, their parents or grandparents with the electoral rolls that were prepared during an earlier intensive revision.
After the Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, reportedly objected to including the extra declaration in the online Form 6 procedure without first formally amending the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, the requirement came under controversy.
The Election Commission, on the other hand, stated that the statutory Form 6 had not been changed. In its view, the declaration was a separate document which applied during the Special Intensive Revision process and not a modification of the form provided for in the rules.
At its meeting on September 26, the entire Commission—made up of Gyanesh Kumar, the Chief Election Commissioner, and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi—agreed that the additional declaration would only be necessary when an SIR exercise is going on.
As a result, in those states and Union Territories where the SIR has already been concluded or where it has not yet started, the usual Form 6 enrolment procedure will be carried out.
The project is especially pertinent to Sikkim, since the Election Commission began the SIR enumeration phase on May 30, 2026; at that time the ECI had clearly instructed that anyone among the eligible electors who wished to have themselves included after the enumeration period should apply using Form 6 together with the required declaration.
The Commission has stated that its SIR orders were approved unanimously and that it has the power to require further documentation during an intensive revision.
There arose, however, a separate legal question as to whether the declaration which was later incorporated into the online enrolment procedure was the same as the one which had been considered in the earlier litigation before the Supreme Court. Legal reports have pointed out the differences between the declaration looked at in the Bihar SIR proceedings and the later version which required information linking applicants or their relatives to the previous SIR electoral rolls.
As a result of the most recent change, in those areas where the intensive revision exercise has ended the extra SIR declaration will no longer be included with Form 6, but it will still be required when there is an active SIR in line with the Election Commission's relevant orders.
[ Election Commission of India, Form 6, Special Intensive Revision, SIR, Voter Registration, Electoral Roll, Sikkim News ]
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