Election Commission cannot modify Forms 6, 7 and 8, says Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has questioned the Election Commission's decision to make Form 6 mandatory for voter list revision in Delhi. The court criticised the requirement that people whose names were already on the electoral rolls should submit Form 6 again to get their names included during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.

A Bench led by the Chief Justice of India clarified that the Election Commission cannot make changes to the prescribed formats of Forms 6, 7 and 8. The Bench also directed the Commission to introduce a simpler procedure for people whose names have been deleted from the voter list.

Form 6 is used for registering new voters. The Supreme Court also questioned the need to set October 30 as the deadline for re-inclusion of names, especially when there is no possibility of an election in Delhi in the near future. The court observed that no deadline should be imposed for the re-inclusion of names in the electoral rolls.

The court was hearing petitions filed by RTI activists Anjali Bharadwaj and Amrita Johri, who expressed concern over the possibility of eligible voters being left out of the electoral rolls during the SIR exercise.