What is Form 6 and why is it central to 13.36 Cr voter deletions?

Transcript:

Three words you’ve probably heard a lot during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in India: 

1. ASDD (absent, shifted, dead or duplicated), 
2. Unmapped, and 
3. Logical Discrepancy. 

Voters marked under the second two categories are served a notice to prove their eligibility with supporting documents but the first category leads to immediate deletion from the rolls.

Recent ECI data reveals that 13.36 crore names have been deleted in the SIR so far. 

According to ECI guidelines, if voter deletions exceed 2% in any given area, the Electoral Registration Officer must personally conduct a cross-verification to ensure accuracy.

However, reports are flooding in about people who were deleted without any such verification, including people who were relocated by the state after demolition of their homes.

So what happens to the people who were deleted? How can they challenge the ECI’s categorisation and make it back to the list? 

The ECI through its Booth Level Officers is directing people to use Form 6 — a statutory form meant for fresh registration of first-time voters. There are two primary concerns with this form.

One, Form 6 requires voters to declare that they have never voted before. A false declaration on this form is punishable under the Representation of People Act, 1950 and can result in a year of imprisonment, payment of fine or both.

Aside from the consequences of a false declaration, this process effectively breaks a person’s electoral history. This history is critical not only for citizenship and identity but also to claim state benefits such as housing under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. 

A second concern with form 6 is a modification introduced in July which requires fresh voters to link themselves to the previous SIR. As reported by the IndianExpress, two out of three Election Commissioners allegedly objected to this modification.

On 29 September, the ECI removed this modification in states where final rolls have been published but it remains where the SIR is ongoing, such as Delhi and Karnataka. On the same day, the Indian National Congress decided to demand restoration of all 13.36 crore names, accusing the ECI of arbitrary mass-disenfranchisement.

We know that around 1.4 crore voters were added to the rolls during the first two phases of the SIR but because of the use of Form 6, there is no way to distinguish how many of these were truly new voters and how many were those restored after being mistakenly deleted. 

Notably, all the proceedings before the Court so far regarding the SIR in Bihar and West Bengal have all centred on the Logical Discrepancy and Unmapped categories of voters, the vague nature of notices issues and the procedure of appeals to tribunals. The issue of voter deletions and the concerning use of Form 6 was brought up yesterday and the Supreme Court has advanced a hearing on it from 30 October (the last date for Delhi SIR corrections) to 28 October. 

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