Hans News Service New Delhi

TheElection Commission on Wednesday removed the additional Special Intensive Revision (SIR) declaration from online Form 6 in states and Union Territories where the revision exercise has concluded. The change was made on the ECINET portal and comes four days after the full Commission decided that the additional requirement would apply only during the SIR exercise.

Form 6 is the statutory form used by eligible citizens to apply for inclusion in electoral rolls. The additional declaration had required new applicants to indicate whether their names, or those of their parents or grandparents, appeared in electoral rolls prepared during an earlier SIR. Applicants could also be asked to provide relevant electoral-roll details.

With the declaration now removed in states where SIR has ended, new applicants will have to submit only the statutory Form 6 prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. The additional SIR-related requirement continues in states and UTs where the revision is still underway.

The move follows controversy over the alteration of Form 6. The Indian Express had reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections to the change, arguing that the statutory form could not be modified without amending the relevant rules.

The report also said the two Commissioners had recorded objections on SIR-related decisions on multiple occasions, raising questions over the decision-making process within the Commission. The ECI subsequently announced that the statutory forms would be used during non-SIR periods and set up an expert panel to review ECINET's compliance with laws and rules.