Use of Form 6 to re-enlist voters left out during SIR challenged in Supreme Court

Voters who received notices to prove eligibility in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive queue at a designated location with documents in New Delhi. File | Photo Credit: SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court regarding a "fundamental anomaly" in requiring people whose names were deleted from electoral rolls during the special intensive revision (SIR) process to fill Form 6 if they want re-inclusion in the voters’ list. The form, the petition pointed out, requires every applicant to affirm that they are applying for inclusion in electoral rolls for the first time as it is primarily used for the registration of new voters.

During the enumeration phase of the SIR in Delhi, 47,56,722 electors (32.78% of the number of names in the voters’ list before the SIR) were excluded from the draft electoral roll under the ‘absent, shifted, dead or duplicate entry (ASDD)' category. For these electors, the only mechanism to have their name restored in the rolls is through Form 6.