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The people’s newsroom

PolicyElections

Voters struck off in Delhi SIR can apply afresh on Form 6, Election Commission tells High Court

Two voters who moved house and missed the enumeration wanted their old entries restored. The court closed their case, telling them their fear of a false declaration was misplaced.

From the editorial desk · New DelhiPublished
A hall in the Delhi High Court (file photo)
A hall in the Delhi High Court (file photo)Photo: Surance / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Key points

  1. The Election Commission told the Delhi High Court deleted voters can seek relief by filing Form 6.
  2. The petitioners wanted their entries restored through Form 8 instead of a fresh application.
  3. Justices Dinesh Mehta and Aditi Choudhary closed the case, calling the voters' fear 'misplaced'.

Voters whose names were struck off Delhi’s electoral rolls in the special intensive revision (SIR) because they could not be enumerated can get back on the rolls by filing a fresh Form 6, the Election Commission has told the Delhi High Court.

The statement came in a petition by two voters who had moved from their old addresses and so could not fill in their enumeration forms during the SIR. Their names were deleted. They challenged the commission’s procedure for existing electors who could not be enumerated, and asked for their old entries to be restored and corrected through Form 8, which is used to shift or correct an entry, rather than having to apply for inclusion all over again.

The worry about Form 6

Form 6 is the statutory application for fresh inclusion in the roll, and applicants must declare that they are applying for the first time. A false declaration can attract penal consequences, which is why the petitioners were wary of it.

The commission’s standing counsel, on instructions from the electoral registration officer, said the petitioners could get relief by filing Form 6 under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. The officer would help them, the counsel said, but they had chosen not to seek that help.

A bench of Justices Dinesh Mehta and Aditi Choudhary said the petitioner’s fear of being accused of a false declaration was “misplaced”. “The petitioners, if so desire, may fill Form 6, which shall be processed in accordance with law,” the bench said, and closed the writ proceedings in an order made public on Sunday.

Why it matters

The order offers a route back for voters who fell out of the rolls during the Delhi revision, where booth-level officers are already rechecking 47 lakh electors left out of the draft. The new Form 6 itself is under challenge in the Supreme Court, which said this month that it had never ruled on it and agreed to examine it.