The declaration accompanying Form 6, which was introduced for the first time during the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar last year, has undergone substantial changes in the later phases.
This addition in the form continued in the third phase, which was announced in May this year. if the applicant did not have this information, they could choose the third option, on the ECINet portal While filling the form online in the second phase.
Though the field was not formally marked “mandatory”, in practice applicants could not submit the online form without completing it.
Since it is part of an official rule, it legally counts as part of that rule — the ECI cannot redesign it on its own. Form 6 is attached to the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. They said that Form 6 in itself was never amended; only a declaration was added. The ECI officials also said that the power to add the declaration form was upheld by the Supreme Court on May 27 this year.
Only the Union government (through the Ministry of Law and Justice, since these rules come under the Representation of the People Act, 1950) has the power to amend the rules, and therefore Form 6 too. What happened in the online module for filing the form was that the IT department made changes so that a person filling the form does not have to e-sign twice while doing it and can proceed to the declaration having signed in only once, they claimed.
