The Election Commission of India on Monday told the Bombay High Court that a deleted voter filing Form 6 for re-inclusion into the voter list during a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise would not amount to filing a false declaration.
The court questioned whether the procedure adopted by the Election Commission for this was in consonance with the Representation of the People’s Act and its provisions for revision exercises. “If citizens are excluded what will we do with your SIR? He stated that the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, are to treat a special intensive revision “as though we are preparing the roll for the first time.
If citizens are being removed from the list then what is the purpose of this entire SIR process then?” the bench comprising of justices Valmiki Menezes and Amit Jamsandekar, said. “The previous roll only serves as a database for getting data for preparing the enumeration roll,” he said.
Salgaonkar’s opposition to filing Form 6
“If you have not submitted the enumeration form, the name gets deleted from the draft roll. If his name is not there in the draft roll. The HC, countered, saying that effectively in the SIR “you are not removing people from the draft roll but effectively from the existing roll… Your argument now is that since SIR is underway, we shouldn’t look at the existing roll and only focus on the draft roll…
Referring to the case of Paresh Salgaonkar, the Election Commission argued that it was not possible for them to have accepted his Form 8 since “his name was already deleted from the draft roll. Form 8 cannot be submitted independently when your name is not on the draft roll,” he said. The HC also said that since Salgaonkar was changing his address but staying as a voter in his own constituency, filing Form 6 would amount to submitting a false declaration. Form 6 is used registering a new voter.
We just cannot ignore the existing list,” the bench said.
