The Election Commission has issued a clarification stating that voters whose names are missing from the draft electoral rolls can submit Form 6 for inclusion, addressing concerns over fear of prosecution.
In a move to address concerns raised by some voters who were hesitant to submit Form 6 due to fear of prosecution for making a false declaration, the Election Commission has issued a clarification. This form is used for first-time voter registration. The poll panel stated that no action will be taken against those voters who are not already enrolled in another constituency, provided they submit Form 6 without falsely declaring that their names are being included in the electoral rolls for the first time.
The Election Commission's clarification aligns with an October 14 ruling by the Delhi High Court, which addressed the concerns of voters who might have been hesitant to submit Form 6 due to misplaced apprehensions about making false declarations. The court stated that such apprehensions were misplaced since the direction to submit Form 6 came from the Election Commission itself.
The High Court also noted that voters whose names do not appear in the draft rolls must seek inclusion afresh, regardless of whether they had been enrolled previously. In October, the poll panel directed its state units where the revision had been completed to identify and restore eligible voters who may have been wrongly excluded using Form 6.
However, it is important to note that former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi had previously stated that Form 6 cannot be filled by deleted voters as it is only for new voters. This statement was made when the poll panel directed state units to use Form 6 for eligible voters who might have been wrongly excluded during the revision.
The clarification comes after a series of observations and discussions on the matter by various courts and bodies, including the Supreme Court, which verbally asked why voters who had been enrolled before the revision could not use Form 8 (for changing addresses) instead of Form 6 after being deleted from the draft rolls for not filling the enumeration forms during the exercise.
Source:
Scroll.in
