New Delhi: It is the government and parliament that are the sole competent authorities which decide on what changes, if any, are to be made in Form 6, the form Indians need to fill in order to demand inclusion in the electoral rolls. The Wire has tracked how the Election Commission, since its Special Intensive Revision drive has quietly changed this crucial Form.The Election Commission first added a new declaration to be submitted along with Form 6 during the Bihar SIR. Another page was added in the second round of the SIR. During the present round of SIR, the Form 6 itself has been changed for online applications.Former Election Commission officials The Wire spoke to said that rules and forms can be amended only by the government and after amendment, this has to be approved by parliament. Altering Form 6 without this amendment renders the Election Commission’s actions “ipso facto illegal”. Transparency activists said that use of Form 6 both to enrol new voters and by those who failed to fill enumeration forms in Bihar, and the Election Commission’s failure to provide segregated data of how many Form 6 additions were new voters and those unable to fill enumeration forms, is only one among the “series of arbitrary and sudden shifts” characterising the SIR.While the Supreme Court has once again reiterated earlier this week, that the Election Commission is not an arbiter of citizenship, exclusion from the rolls resulting in the termination of state welfare benefits, even denial of passports, has made scrutiny into how new voters are being taken onto the rolls even more important.What is Form 6?Before June 24, 2025, Form 6 was simply an application that new electors used to apply for their inclusion in the electoral rolls. It required no proof of citizenship, and only needed Aadhaar details for authentication of entries, and self attested documents of age and ordinary residence. Such was the flexibility of the Form 6 that the guidelines also provided that if none of the documents sought in the Form as age and residence proof was available the applicant could enclose some other document in support of age proof by mentioning its name in the Declaration part of the Form following which the applicant was required to appear personally before Electoral Registration Officer or any other officer designated by him for verification. Since June 24, 2025 when the Election Commission of India announced SIR of the electoral rolls, not only has the accompanying declaration sought in Form 6 changed but the Form itself has undergone a change. The changes have come despite the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 that flows from the Section 28 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 requiring that any change or amendment can only be made by the government and are subject to parliamentary oversight. The journey of the Form 6 and the statutory changes brought in it through the SIR, done quietly by the Election Commission through instructions, without going to parliament have once again raised questions about the opaque manner in which the procedures under the SIR have been adopted, even as it has asked citizens to furnish proof after proof subjecting them to a virtual citizenship drive. Former Election Commission officials The Wire spoke to said that rules and forms can be amended only by the government and after amendment, this has to be put in the parliament, calling the Election Commission’s actions “ipso facto illegal”. Transparency activists said that the changes to Form 6, its use to both enrol new voters and by those who failed to fill enumeration forms in Bihar, and the Election Commission’s failure to provide segregated data of how many Form 6 additions were new voters and those unable to fill enumeration forms is only one among the “series of arbitrary and sudden shifts” characterising the SIR, evading parliamentary and public scrutiny.How Form 6 changed courseIn the SIR’s pilot edition in Bihar that commenced on June 25, 2025 the Election Commission in its instructions said that new voter applications, voters who failed to fill enumeration forms in time, could also fill Form 6. In both cases they were required to attach the prescribed Declaration Form. The declaration asked them to provide one of the 11 listed documents listed to show their place of birth if born before 1987, or if born after 1987 but before 2004 to show their place of birth and establish date of birth and/or place of birth of either parent, and for those born after 2004 to establish the same for both parents.Form 6 (Page 1), Election Commission of India.Form 6 (Page 2), Election Commission of India. Bihar Form 6 Declaration.At the end of the exercise in Bihar when the Election Commission published details of the new electoral rolls, it provided figures for Form 6 additions, but did not provide a breakup of new electors and those who used the application due to their inability to fill the enumeration forms. In October when the poll body announced the exercise for 12 states and union territories, it quietly included new instructions that revised the declaration form to be appended with Form 6. This declaration form required voters to include their parents’ details in the previous SIR along with the same declaration sought in Bihar.New declaration form for Form 6 for Phase 2 of SIR commencing in October 2025.In May, when the Election Commission announced the SIR for the 16 states and union territories that are now underway, it not only included the same amended Form 6 to include the new declaration form as in October but also quietly changed the online application form as a whole. This online Form 6 application does not allow voters to proceed to the next step to successfully complete their application unless they provide details of their parents’ details from the previous SIR.Parliament bypassedThe Election Commission’s quiet changes aside, election laws however, lay down the procedure through which changes can be made.Former chief election commissioner O.P. Rawat told The Wire, “Any changes to Form 6 flows from The Representation of the People Act 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules 1960. Rule 13 of the Registration of Electors Rules 1960 provides that if one wants to include their name in the electoral roll, Form 6 has to be used to apply. Form 6 accordingly is appended to the Rules, which does not have the provision as of now of seeking a voter’s parents’ details and therefore an offline form or one that is downloaded will not have it.”“Election Commission may have thought of it to prevent all those who are ineligible to be electors to come into the electoral roll through Form 6 thereby defeating the purpose of the SIR. So we should not doubt their bonafide but the process is that rules and forms can be amended only by the government and after amendment, this has to be put in the parliament,” he added.Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 flows from the Section 28 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 that makes it clear that every aspect relating to electoral rolls are governed by rules which are made only by the government and are subject to parliamentary scrutiny. “A reading of Section 28(2) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 makes it abundantly clear that every aspect relating to Electoral Rolls are governed by the Rules and only governments are competent to make changes therein. Even this power of government in making Rules is not unquestioned,” said a former chief election commissioner who did not want to be named. “Under Section 28(3) of the Act, every Rule made by government shall be placed before either House of Parliament within thirty days of convening and if ‘both Houses agree in making any modification in the Rule or both Houses agree that the Rule should not be made, the Rule thereafter have effect in such modified form or be of no effect’ etc. Therefore, it is clear that only the government has the power to amend the Rules, that Forms including Form 6 are part of the Rules and even Govt’s powers to amend the rules are subject to parliamentary oversight under Section 28(3).”The departure from the law under the SIR is new for the Election Commission, which as recently as in 2022 notified the changes made to the electoral forms after amendments were made to the RP Act, in December 2021 following which several changes were made in the electoral forms including a provision for seeking Aadhaar details of electors, a gazette notification was issued in June 2022 following which the changes came into effect in August 2022.While upholding the constitutionality of the SIR, the Supreme Court in its judgement in May said referring to Form 6 that while the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, sets out a framework of documentation; however, the same is tailored to the process of revision contemplated under Section 21(2) of the RP Act and “may not, in all situations, be capable of literal application to an exercise of the present nature.” The judgement however added that while the Election Commission retains a degree of authority to formulate an appropriate documentation framework suited to the exigencies of a SIR, such authority, however, is “not unbounded” and must remain in the existing statutory scheme.“In devising such a framework, the Commission must remain cognisant of the existing statutory scheme, and any departure therefrom must be informed by a rational nexus to the object sought to be achieved,” the order said. “The formulation of the documentation regime must thus reflect a calibrated balance in drawing from the statutory framework, while adapting it, where necessary, to effectively serve the purpose of ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the electoral roll.”Not only has the Election Commission’s move to change the Form 6 and its accompanying declaration come without any notification during the SIR, it has also not given any explanation on why it chose to only issue instructions on the amendment without going to parliament. “The government of India decides its operational laws like the Representation of People’s Act and frames all rules, like the Registration of Electors Rules. It’s been getting away with many things recently but in the instant case of Form 6, the Election Commission has to abide by the existing law and rules,” said former TMC MP Jawhar Sircar who as a bureaucrat served as the chief electoral officer of West Bengal.“The Election Commission and the government are still separate and have not yet merged, this is ipso facto illegal. Every Constitutional body must explain why its exercise of power steps into the jurisdiction of another body and this includes the Supreme Court when it exercises powers under Article 142 of the Constitution. An explanation must be provided of why it is doing so, and why it was necessary.”Dodging scrutiny, zero transparencyWhy Form 6 was used both as registering new electors and for those unable to fill their enumeration forms in time in Bihar has also not been explained along with why no bifurcated data was provided. EC instructions for Bihar saying Form 6 can also be used for those who failed to fill enumeration forms in time.All this points to the larger opacity surrounding the rollout of the SIR exercise, with the Election Commission even saying in response to an RTI enquiry in November last year, that it does not have any documents on the decision process to initiate the SIR, and then saying that it has “so far not taken any decision on initiating a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) across the country in 2025 and hence no information to be provided in this regard.”This despite the SIR already completed in Bihar by then and underway in 12 other states and union territories.Transparency activist Amrita Johri associated with the Satark Nagrik Sangathan said that the changes made to the Form 6 are only the “latest in a series of arbitrary and sudden shifts in procedure which have characterised the SIR exercise.”“We have no information on how many ‘ghuspaithiyas’ (alleged illegal immigrants) have been found – which was ostensibly the motive for the SIR or how many first time voters have been added with a bifurcation of how many were added as they turned 18 recently and how many were added back after being wrongly deleted. There has been no accountability for the large-scale wrongful deletions of voters- the tribunals in West Bengal found that most people had been wrongly deleted and ordered their restoration,” she said. “Instead of making changes to the statutory form by amending the law and rules, the ECI has evaded parliamentary and public scrutiny by using the instructions route to tag on this additional declaration in Form 6. It is an irony that documents of 100 crore Indians are being sought through one of the most undocumented and arbitrary exercises by the ECI while the constant changing of rules and goalposts is accompanied by complete lack of transparency about the SIR,” she said.