The Election Commission of India (ECI) has withdrawn the additional Special Intensive Revision (SIR) declaration from online Form 6 in states and Union territories where the electoral roll revision exercise has been completed, according to a report by the Times of India. The declaration, which required new applicants to provide details linking themselves, their parents or grandparents to electoral rolls prepared during an earlier SIR, has been removed from the ECINET portal and the respective Chief Electoral Officer websites. Applicants in these states will now only need to fill the regular statutory Form 6 under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

The change follows a September 26 meeting of the full Commission, where it clarified that the additional declaration was meant specifically for SIR and that statutory forms under the 1960 rules would be used during non-SIR periods. The ECI maintained that the declaration was introduced as part of the SIR process and upheld by the Supreme Court in its judgment on the Bihar SIR. However, the Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu had raised objections to changes concerning Form 6, arguing that the statutory form could not be modified without amending the rules. Joshi described the change as 'unauthorised/illegal' and sought its removal.

The move comes amid ongoing tensions within the ECI, with Sandhu and Joshi objecting to decisions on SIR that they claimed were issued without their knowledge or recommendation. According to the Indian Express, they had objected on record at least 14 times over the previous 10 months. The Commission, however, stated that all orders relating to SIR had the unanimous approval of all three election commissioners. The Congress-led opposition INDIA bloc is set to meet in New Delhi to discuss its course of action against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the issue.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has demanded a halt to the SIR of electoral rolls and sought the restoration of 130 million names it claims were deleted. The party also called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation over the exercise. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge demanded that the ECI make public complete data on major changes to electoral rolls and conduct independent, time-bound inquiries where discrepancies are evident. The party also called for voters whose names were removed to be informed and given a chance to appeal, and for electoral rolls and data to be shared with political parties in a simple format.

The ECI has not provided a formal response to the Congress’ demands, and no further details have been released regarding the impact of the change on voter registration. The exact number of names affected by the SIR process remains unclear, and the extent of the data sharing requested by Congress has not been specified. The ECI has not commented on the allegations of double counting or the validity of the SIR process, leaving these issues unresolved. The situation remains under scrutiny as the ECI continues to manage the electoral roll revision process across the country.