New Delhi: Days after the full poll panel ruled that the extra SIR-linked declaration would apply only while the Special Intensive Revision is in progress, the Election Commission has pulled it from the online voter enrolment Form 6 in states where the exercise has already over.
The additional declaration — which asks new applicants to state whether they, their parents or grandparents were part of electoral rolls drawn up during an earlier intensive revision — continues to feature on the ECINET portal in those states and Union Territories where the SIR is still going on.
In states where the SIR exercise has ended, the extra declaration has been deleted from the ECINET app and website, as well as from the respective Chief Electoral Officer portals. Applicants seeking fresh enrolment in these states now have to complete only the statutory Form 6 laid down under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, as reported by The New Indian Express.
The decision traces back to a September 26 meeting of the full Commission, attended by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
After the meeting, the poll panel clarified that the declaration appended to Form 6 was meant specifically for the SIR exercise and that “for non-SIR period, the Forms applicable as per Rules (the Registration of Electors Rules 1960) will be used”.
The declaration had turned into a flashpoint after it came to light that Sandhu and Joshi had flagged objections to alterations connected with Form 6.
Form 6 is the statutory application used by eligible citizens to seek inclusion in the electoral roll. Joshi had contested changes to the form, contending that a form prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, could not be altered without amending the rules. Sandhu had backed his stand.
Once the SIR-related declaration was built into the online Form 6 workflow on ECINET, Sandhu again raised objections, calling the move “unauthorised/illegal” and demanding that it be taken off.
In its public communications, however, the poll panel has held that Form 6 itself was not changed and that the declaration was an extra requirement tied only to the SIR exercise. It has also said the declaration was upheld by the Supreme Court in its judgment concerning the Bihar SIR.
The September 26 decisions came in the wake of a report by The Indian Express that Sandhu and Joshi had raised objections on record at least 14 times over the previous 10 months to decisions and orders relating to the SIR, which they allegedly said had been issued without their knowledge or recommendation.
The Commission, in its September 26 statement, maintained that orders relating to the SIR had received the unanimous approval of all three Election Commissioners.