New Delhi: The Election Commission is going to make an important change in the process of registration of new voters in the country. Now people applying to become a voter through online mode will also have to provide information to their or their parents’ presence in the voter list during the last Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Form-6. After this change, the online application process has become more detailed than before.
According to the information, a new declaration form has been added to the online Form-6 available on the ECINET portal of the Election Commission. In this the applicant will be asked whether his name or his parents’ names were recorded in the previous SIR voter list. If the answer is yes, then information like the concerned assembly constituency, booth number and serial number will also have to be filled.
However, questions are also being raised regarding this change. It is being told that no separate legal notification has been issued yet for this amendment in Form-6. Apart from this, this new declaration is not included in the Form-6 to be downloaded offline. This means that people applying on paper will not have to provide this additional information, whereas filling it has become mandatory for those applying online.
According to the Election Commission, this system is seen to be applicable in those states and union territories where Special Intensive Review (SIR) has been completed or is in progress during the year 2025-26. Bihar is different from this process, because SIR has already been completed there, whereas in Assam this campaign was not conducted due to legal reasons.
In the new declaration, three options have been given to the applicants. First, their name was in the previous SIR list. Second, his parents’ names were in the list and third, neither his nor his parents’ names were in the list. Those choosing the first two options will have to provide additional details, while in case of choosing the third option, clear guidelines have not yet been issued regarding the further process.
Form-6 is used for re-registration of first-time voters, new citizens or those whose name has already been removed from the voter list. In such a situation, this change in the online application process is being considered important for the future voter registration system.
