Within four days of rolling back the policy, the EC deleted the controversial “declaration” from Form 6 for the states with the completion of the SIR process from the ECINET portal due to the internal disputes that followed the addition of the declaration. It was pointed out by two Election Commissioners that the addition was contrary to law due to its lack of statutory support.
The beginning of the Form 6 issue
The issue started when the EC issued a physical document during the rollout of SIR 2025 in Bihar. However, the investigators and media reports revealed that Form 6 available at the ECINET portal has an additional declaration between Sections J and K.
An applicant needs to declare whether they or their immediate predecessors appeared in the previous SIR rolls with booth and serial numbers. Importantly, the PDF version of Form 6 available in the official portal has no such declaration.
Legal barriers and internal disagreements
According to the Representation of the People Act, 1950, it is only the Central government that is authorized to modify official forms of voter registration, deletion, and correction under the act. Because the digital insertion occurred without formal legislative amendment or government notification, two Election Commissioners flagged the step as illegal.
While the ECINET portal has stripped the declaration from states with finalized SIR rolls, the requirement temporarily remains active for regions where revision processes are still ongoing. The sudden reversal highlights mounting administrative challenges in standardizing digital electoral rolls across state boundaries.
Bureau Report
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