Explainer: Why the Election Commission’s Form 6 for new voters has triggered a legal row

What happened: India's Supreme Court clarified it did not approve any modified version of Form 6, the new voter enrolment application, amid a legal row over an added declaration on the ECINet portal tied to the special intensive Why it matters: Two election commissioners reportedly held that statutorily prescribed forms cannot be altered without amending the 1960 Rules, while the commission says Form 6 was unchanged and the declaration was SIR-specific. The court set a limit that departures from the statutory framework must bear a rational nexus to maintaining an accurate electoral roll.

India's Supreme Court clarified it did not approve any modified version of Form 6, the new voter enrolment application, amid a legal row over an added declaration on the ECINet portal tied to the special intensive

Two election commissioners reportedly held that statutorily prescribed forms cannot be altered without amending the 1960 Rules, while the commission says Form 6 was unchanged and the declaration was SIR-specific. The court set a limit that departures from the statutory framework must bear a rational nexus to maintaining an accurate electoral roll.