Form 6 and voter registration: why a form became a controversy

Form 6 is the standard application for inclusion of a name in the electoral roll. It is used mainly by a person enrolling for the first time, for example on turning 18, or by an eligible citizen whose name is not already on the roll. The form is prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, which is why a dispute about changing it is a legal question, not only a website-design question. Form 7, by contrast, objects to an entry or seeks deletion, and Form 8 covers correction or shifting of residence.

During SIR, the Commission required an additional declaration alongside Form 6 in the online application. Reporting in 2026 said applicants were asked about whether they or their parents appeared on rolls from an earlier intensive revision, and could not submit the online form without answering, while the downloadable Form 6 did not contain that set of questions. Petitioners argued that inserting questions into the online application changed what people had to complete to seek registration without a formal amendment to the Rules.

The Commission's position, stated in court filings and press notes reported in October 2026, is that Form 6 itself was not amended — only the Central Government can amend the prescribed form — and that the SIR declaration was a separate document attached for that exercise. It said all SIR orders, dated 24 June 2025, 27 October 2025 and 14 May 2026, were unanimous, and that internal notes or objections recorded during file processing do not by themselves constitute Commission decisions. It also said standard prescribed forms would be used outside SIR periods.

The Supreme Court has not finally resolved this dispute in the coverage checked for this note. On 5 October 2026, a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant said the Court had not approved a modified Form 6 and sought the Commission's records to examine what, if anything, was changed and who made any change. In a separate Delhi SIR hearing in late October 2026, the Court questioned why voters already on earlier rolls but left out of a draft should have to file Form 6, meant for first-time enrolment, rather than Form 8 for shifting residence. Those questions are not final rulings, and the outcome remained unresolved at the time of writing.