People applying to be added to the electoral rolls will now be required to disclose their parents' status in the previous Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, as the Election Commission (EC) has made this declaration compulsory for online voter registration, according to officials.
The new requirement has been incorporated into Form 6, the statutory application used by first-time voters, newly eligible citizens, and previously deleted electors seeking fresh registration. Although the form has not been officially amended through a gazette notification, EC officials stated that the declaration has been introduced through administrative directions and is now mandatory for online applications.
Officials said applicants cannot complete the online Form 6 submission unless they fill out the declaration section, which asks whether they or their parents were included in the electoral rolls prepared during the last SIR exercise.
The declaration, placed between Parts J and K of the online Form 6 on the ECINET portal, requires applicants to select one of three options: whether their own name appeared in the previous SIR electoral roll, whether the name of a parent or grandparent appeared in that roll, or whether neither the applicant nor their parents were listed.
Applicants selecting either of the first two options must provide details such as the Assembly constituency, polling station number, and serial number from the previous SIR electoral roll. If they do not have this information, they may choose the third option. However, the portal does not explain the consequences of selecting that category.
According to EC officials, the declaration was first introduced during the Bihar SIR exercise launched in June last year and has since been adopted in voter registration processes across states and Union Territories where SIR exercises have been carried out.
An EC official noted that the daily SIR bulletins issued during the Bihar exercise included forms with these declarations, adding that the measure helps establish links between electors while reducing the number of supporting documents required from new applicants.
Under the current electoral rules, Form 6 already requires applicants to provide details of family members living with them, including their Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers. The newly introduced declaration expands this requirement by seeking information connected to previous SIR electoral rolls, despite the absence of any formal amendment to the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
The move comes as the Election Commission continues its nationwide drive to conduct SIR exercises aimed at identifying eligible voters and removing duplicate, deceased, shifted, absent, and foreign names from electoral rolls.
SIR exercises have already been completed in several states, including West Bengal, Bihar, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, while similar exercises are ongoing in other states and Union Territories. The process has attracted attention because revised electoral rolls prepared under SIR have resulted in the deletion of a large number of voter names, raising concerns about the implications for future applicants and the family members of those removed from the rolls.
