{"id":112831,"date":"2026-07-13T11:34:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T06:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=112831"},"modified":"2026-07-13T11:34:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T06:04:36","slug":"ecinet-form-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ecinet-form-6\/","title":{"rendered":"ECINET Form 6: New Voter Registration Requirement Raises Procedural Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>ECINET Form 6 Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Election Commission of India&#8217;s (ECI) online voter registration portal, ECINET, now requires new applicants to furnish <\/span><b>details of their parents&#8217; status<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the last Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, down to the polling booth number and serial number.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This change has been introduced even though <\/span><b>Form 6,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the statutory enrolment form, has not been formally amended through the procedure established by law, raising questions about due process.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What Is the New Procedure?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ECINET portal allows users to submit forms for new electoral registrations, changes to existing rolls, and deletions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Form 6, the electors&#8217; enrolment form under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, now includes a new section online called the &#8220;declaration form.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Applicants must state whether their parents were included in the last SIR:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>If yes:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They must provide the Assembly constituency number, polling booth (part) number, and the serial number at which their father or mother was registered.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>If no:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They must select that option and provide their parents&#8217; names and Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers, if available.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This requirement applies in all states where the SIR has been completed or is underway, except Bihar.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Status of the SIR Exercise<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The EC has completed the SIR in 13 states\/UTs since June 2025, using the early 2000s intensive revision as the reference point (&#8220;last SIR&#8221;).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The exercise is currently underway in 19 other states\/UTs.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The EC has yet to announce the SIR for Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Assam, the SIR has been deferred until the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise is completed.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So far, the SIR has led to the <\/span><b>deletion of 5.58 crore names<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> nationally, mostly due to electors being found deceased, shifted, absent, or enrolled at multiple places.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In West Bengal alone, 27 lakh electors who had submitted documents were deleted through a judicial adjudication process, with appeals now pending before appellate tribunals.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>The Legal Question: Was Due Process Followed?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/article-326-of-indian-constitution\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Article 326<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the Constitution guarantees the right to enrol as an elector to all adult citizens ordinarily resident in a constituency, unless disqualified by law.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/representation-of-the-people-act-1950\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Representation of the People Act, 1950<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> empowers the Union government to frame election and registration rules.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Section 28 (RPA)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> requires the Central Government, after consulting the EC, to notify rules in the Official Gazette, which must then be laid before Parliament.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since Form 6 is part of the <\/span><b>Registration of Electors Rules, 1960<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, any change to it requires formal amendment and gazette notification by the Law and Justice Ministry.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, no such amendment has been notified<\/span><b>.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> E-Gazette records from June 2025 (when the SIR was announced) show no change to Form 6.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notably, the downloadable\/printable version of Form 6 on ECINET does not even contain the new SIR declaration section, confirming that the form has not been formally amended.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Implications for New Electors<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New applicants, largely those who have recently turned 18, must now trace themselves or their parents to the last SIR record.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since the EC has not clarified this change, it remains unclear whether applicants unable to provide such details will face additional scrutiny.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This assumes greater significance because the ongoing SIR is unprecedented: rolls are being prepared afresh rather than revised annually, and for the first time, electors must submit documents to prove eligibility, including citizenship.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The impact of this declaration requirement on the enrolment of children of those already deleted from rolls (as in West Bengal) remains unknown.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ECINET&#8217;s new declaration requirement highlights a troubling gap between administrative practice and legal procedure.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without formal gazette notification, the change lacks statutory backing, raising concerns about transparency, accountability, and the potential exclusion of genuine electors from India&#8217;s democratic process.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/election-commission-new-voter-registration-sir-form6-10782904\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ECINET Form 6 introduces new parental electoral record requirements, raising concerns over due process, statutory compliance and voter registration transparency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":112856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[8655,60,22,59],"class_list":["post-112831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","tag-ecinet-form-6","tag-mains-articles","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-mains-current-affairs-tag","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112831"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112852,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112831\/revisions\/112852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}