Listen to this article:

New Delhi: The Election Commission has been facing criticism over its conduct of the special intensive revision. One of the areas inviting the most outrage is the controversial changes to the online Form 6 application, requiring applicants to map their parents’ details to the previous SIR, failing which they cannot proceed to the next step. Two Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi have filed objections on this. Now, the Election Commission of India’s counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court has raised more questions than answers.

While the counter affidavit has denied any amendment made to the statutory form for inclusion of new electors – the form can only be amended by parliament – it has conceded that the declaration requiring an applicant to establish a connection to the previous SIR was “entered into the online page” to generate a single one-time password or e-sign.

This, in effect, leads the Election Commission to admit that the online Form 6 had indeed been changed by making the contentious declaration a part of it. The affidavit also says that the manner in which the declaration was presented online “could be construed as though an amendment” to the Form 6 had been made. 

While in its press note last month, the Election Commission said that the “declaration attached” to Form 6 had been upheld by the Supreme Court, now in its counter affidavit, the poll body has said that the declaration is “not part” of Form 6, is a “separate and independent document” and is only “one of the documents required to be submitted by any applicant/voter along with” Form........

© The Wire