“The Commission should place the complete legal and procedural basis for these changes in the public domain so that there is clarity on how these decisions were taken,” demand former top poll officials.
Under intense scrutiny for its unilateral change to form 6 – the form needed for enrolling as a first-time voter – the Election Commission has opened yet another Pandora’s box. Former top officials from the Election Commission of India have questioned the categorisation of voters into SIR (Special Intensive Revision) and non-SIR states across the country.
The ECI has said that while the non-SIR state voters can simply fill out the Form 6, the SIR state voters would need to fill out an additional form – the Annexure-D declaration, asking whether the applicant, their parents or their grandparents were on the roll at the time of the previous SIR. The very legal basis of this move by the ECI is being questioned by former top officials of the poll body in an exclusive conversation with Times Now Digital.
The Election Commission said the extra form would apply only where the SIR is still running: The Election Commission has said the extra form applies only where the SIR is still running. That is now 12 states and Union Territories, among them Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka. The SIR has finished in 20 states and UTs, and it has not yet begun in three: Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. New voters in these 23 fill in Form 6 alone.
EC’s Power “Not Unbounded”
“Form 6 is prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and any substantive amendment to it would require the prescribed legal process and approval of the government,” former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa told Times Now Digital, adding that “In my view, the Election Commission cannot unilaterally impose additional conditions for enrolment through an annexure if those conditions effectively alter the statutory requirements for registration. The question is therefore whether Annexure D is merely an additional declaration or whether, in substance, it imposes a new condition on a citizen’s right to be enrolled.”
“No Amendment To Rules Or Forms Can Be Made By ECI”
Lavasa sets out the constitutional test: “Article 326 lays down the constitutional basis for the right to be registered as a voter, subject to the conditions specified by law. Any differential requirement between SIR and non-SIR states would therefore need to have a clear legal basis and withstand scrutiny under Article 14. The Commission should place the complete legal and procedural basis for these changes in the public domain so that there is clarity on how these decisions were taken.”
Former Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat told Times Now Digital, “No amendment to rules or forms can be made by ECI.”
“The Honourable Supreme Court has held changes to Form 6 as legally all right in their order of 27th May 2026 in the ADR Case. However, in my view SC was not fully and comprehensively briefed in the matter by EC,” he added.