A new mandatory question has appeared on the Election Commission of India's online Form 6, asking whether a parent or grandparent was on the voter roll drawn up during the last Special Intensive Revision. The paper version of the form, downloaded from the same portal, lacks this query, sparking a legal firestorm. According to the Representation of the People Act, 1950, only the Central Government can alter the form, and any change must appear in the Official Gazette before Parliament reviews it.
Commission officials said in July that the question was added through administrative instructions, not a gazette notification. They explained that the instruction arose from the Bihar SIR, designed to link new voters to families already on the rolls and to reduce the paperwork applicants must submit.
In a May filing, Election Commissioner Vivek Joshi recorded that Form 6 cannot be modified through SIR instructions and that the only legal route was a government amendment. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu echoed this stance in August, labeling the addition as "unauthorised and illegal" and demanding its removal.
The Commission's press note asserts that its orders are fully sanctioned by law and that all decisions, including those on the SIR, were unanimous. Former chief election commissioners OP Rawat and SY Quraishi have publicly condemned the change, calling it "absolutely wrong and illegal" and insisting that a rule amendment is required.
The SIR has already cut over 8.7 crore names from draft rolls across three phases, forcing those omitted to re‑register through Form 6. The online declaration warns that a false statement could lead to up to a year in jail, a fine, or both, a penalty that the law never mandated for this new question. An 18‑year‑old voter in Delhi, who has never seen this query before, now faces the dilemma.
Until the Central Government formally amends the form or the Commission removes the question, every new voter registering online will be required to answer the disputed query, a move the Commission says threatens the integrity of the electoral roll.