What is the story about?
New Delhi: Four days after announcing the change, the Election Commission on Wednesday night removed the SIR declaration added to the statutory voter enrolment
form, Form 6, from its ECINET portal in states where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has been completed. On September 26, the EC had announced that “for non-SIR period, the Forms applicable as per Rules (the Registration of Electors Rules 1960) will be used.” The move came after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected to the addition of the SIR declaration to Form 6. The report said the statutory form can only be amended by the Union Law Ministry.
SIR Declaration Removed From ECINET
On Wednesday night, the SIR declaration was no longer visible on the ECINET portal for states where the final SIR electoral rolls have already been published.
The declaration had been inserted between Sections J and K of the online Form 6.
An examination of the Form 6 application on the Election Commission's voter portal showed that the declaration remained available in 13 states where the SIR exercise is currently underway.
It was not shown in states where the SIR has already been completed.
What Changed For New Voters?
At a full Commission meeting on Saturday, the EC decided that the declaration would be used only during the SIR period and not after the exercise had been completed in a state or before it begins.
This means new voters applying through Form 6 in states where SIR has concluded will no longer have to map themselves or their parents to the previous SIR electoral roll.
The EC had earlier said that the separate declaration was approved by the full Commission when the SIR was first conducted in Bihar. Officials had also said that it was used in the second and third phases with the approval of the Chief Election Commissioner and the two Election Commissioners.
