The Election Commission has decided to use the old version of Form 6 during periods when the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is not underway.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Saturday that they will be using the old version of Form 6 for registering new voters during non-SIR (Special Intensive Revision) periods. This decision was made in a meeting attended by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr. Vivek Joshi. The statement from the ECI also mentioned that persons who have been served a notice as part of the SIR for being ‘unmapped’ or due to ‘logical discrepancies’ do not need to mandatorily attend a hearing before the electoral registration officer. Instead, booth-level officers will collect documents from their homes.
The decision comes after two election commissioners, Sandhu and Joshi, formally objected 14 times in 10 months to some of the ECI’s decisions regarding the SIR. Their objections were related to various matters including registration of new voters, changes to Form 6, appeals against the inclusion of voters in West Bengal, and handling of voter data in Goa.
The change in Form 6 required applicants to state whether they or their parents or grandparents were part of the last special intensive revision of electoral rolls. Although the new declaration is not marked as mandatory, applicants cannot submit the online form without filling it. Joshi and Sandhu had objected to this change, stating that it should only be implemented after amending the rules.
Source:
Scroll.in
