SIR row: EC says Form 6, 8 with citizenship declaration were unanimously approved

NEW DELHI: Election Commission officials Thursday said special intensive revision (SIR) orders related to Phase 1 in Bihar, Phase 2 in a dozen states/UTs and ongoing Phase 3 in 19 states/UTs had all listed Forms 6 and 8 with a mandatory declaration form on citizenship details of the elector or parents, and were unanimously approved by CEC and the two election commissioners.While Form 6 is an application for registration as a new elector, Form 8 is for shifting of an elector from outside the state/UT where he seeks to be enrolled.EC sources also denied ECINET was locking out field officers like electoral registration officers (EROs), assistant EROs, BLOs, DEOs, and chief electoral officers, saying ECINET is a decentralised platform designed in accordance with the RP Act 1950, RP Act 1951 and the instructions issued by EC from time to time.Citing the exact pages and paras of the orders, EC's clarification - which was reported exclusively in TOI Thursday - came amid a direct attack by Rahul Gandhi on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Thursday over alleged 'vote chori' and SIR anomalies, while praising the commissioners SS Sandhu and Vivek Joshi for allegedly pointing out pitfalls in procedures adopted by EC for SIR of electoral rolls. It makes it clear that the SIR orders issued for Phase 1 in Bihar on June 24, 2025, for Phase 2 in a dozen states/UTs issued on Oct 27, 2025, and for Phase 3 in 19 states/UTs issued on May 14, 2026, were all unanimously approved by the three commissioners and that their objection to Form 6 and the declaration being unlawful and beyond the EC's remit was an afterthought. While Joshi had objected to Form 6 on May 16, two days after the third SIR order was signed by him, Sandhu did so on Aug 13, months after Supreme Court, in its verdict issued on SIR on May 27, 2026, upheld EC's power to add the declaration form.EC officials said the declaration form was introduced for the ease of voters so that whoever gives the declaration form need not submit any other documents. "This has been uniformly applied in SIR across all states/UTs," an EC official told TOI.On ECINET, the official said, "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 it." Bharti Jain is senior editor with The Times of India, New Delhi. She has been writing on security matters since 1996. Having covered the Union home ministry, security agencies, Election Commission and the ‘prime’ political beat, the Congress, for The Economic Times all these years, she moved to TOI in August 2012. Her repertoire of news stories delves into the whole gamut of issues related to terrorism and internal strife, besides probing strategic affairs in India’s neighbourhood.