SIR: ECI says no other documents needed with additional declaration form

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday reiterated that voters submitting an additional declaration form along with Form 6 or Form 8 during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls are not required to submit any other document.

Amid the ongoing row over the SIR exercise, the poll panel drew attention to the provision, which it said was cleared with the "unanimous approval" of the Commission. It said the provision was included in the SIR process in Bihar and subsequently extended to other states and Union Territories.

The ECI said it is conducting the SIR under Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, a provision that it said has been upheld by several courts across the country.

The poll panel said its June 24, 2025, SIR order for Bihar, approved "unanimously", had included a provision requiring Form 6 along with the Declaration Form.

"Further, in case of application for registration as a new elector or for shifting from outside the state of Bihar, it is also directed that henceforth, along with Form 6/Form 8, an additional Declaration Form (Annexure D) shall also be required to be filled by the applicant to support the declaration made therein," it quoted the earlier order as stating.

The ECI said it subsequently issued another SIR order on October 27, 2025, covering 12 states and Union Territories, which also contained the same provision with the "unanimous approval" of the Commission.

"Further, in case of application for registration as a new elector or for shifting from outside the state, it is also directed that henceforth, along with Form 6 or Form 8, an additional Declaration Form (Annexure D) shall also be required to be filled by the applicant to support the declaration made therein," the poll panel quoted from that order.

Subsequently, through an order dated May 14, the SIR was launched in 19 states and Union Territories under the same provision, again with the "unanimous approval" of the Commission, the ECI said in a statement.

The poll panel also emphasised that the Supreme Court upheld its power to require the declaration form in the ADR vs ECI Writ Petition No. 640/2025 on May 27 this year.

The ECI quoted the Supreme Court's order as stating: "Any new voter was required to submit Form 6 along with a Declaration Form in Annexure D of the Impugned Order."

The apex court further observed: "The Impugned SIR exercise neither stands in direct conflict with the RP Act and the 1960 Rules, nor does it detract from the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections. It is, instead, an exercise traceable to Section 21(3) of the RP Act read with Article 324 of the Constitution, undertaken to advance the very objective which Part XV of the Constitution is designed to protect."

The ECI said the declaration form was introduced for the "ease of voters" so that anyone submitting it "need not submit any other documents".

"This has been uniformly applied in the SIR across all states and Union Territories," it added.

Meanwhile, sources in the ECI clarified that the online portal ECINet is a "decentralised platform" designed in accordance with the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and instructions issued by the poll panel from time to time.

The clarification came after a media report claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised "red flags" over the "gradual centralisation of the electoral roll database" and warned that ECINet was restricting the powers of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs).

"As per law, BLOs, AEROs, EROs, DEOs and CEOs can perform their statutory functions on this platform with their Unique ID and Password. Nobody else can perform their statutory function on ECINet, including any other officer of ECI," sources said.

The sources further said the ECI provides cybersecurity for ECINet to prevent malicious attempts to hack the platform. Such attempts amounted to 68 lakh on the day of the general elections to the legislative assemblies held earlier this year, they said.

With IANS inputs