The Board of Elections will stop physical hearings for voters to begin the registration process

Image is for representational purposes only. | Photo credit: RV Moorthy

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday (September 26, 2026) announced a series of measures to address concerns over the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the country, including stopping physical hearings for unmapped voters or voters with logical discrepancies in census forms.

He stated that the declaration accompanying Form 6 (used for new voter registration) is mandatory only during the current SIR process. This effectively means that new voters applying for inclusion in the electoral roll after the ongoing SIR need not submit any such declaration.

The commission also said that any person whose name was omitted during or after the SIR and any person, including youth/first-time voters, can apply to the concerned Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to include his name in the electoral rolls. A special unit will be launched immediately to register them, she said in a press release.

The SIR process has already been completed in 20 States and Union Territories.

The electoral body’s new initiatives come after a meeting of the full commission on Saturday afternoon (September 26, 2026) and days after reports emerged of a rift among election commissioners over these and other issues in the SIR process, as well as the inner workings of the ECI.

A press release confirmed that the two commissioners had written to the Cabinet Secretary, but said it was not related to any political matter of the commission or the IT division, but related to the officer’s work on deputation to the ECI. “The orders for redistribution of work issued by the officer concerned were not actually implemented after the orders of the two commissioners,” it clarified.

Appropriately, the commission’s press release was accompanied by a photo of all three election commissioners and stated that it “has the approval of the entire commission.”

Regarding the physical hearing, the statement said, “In case of any person who has been issued a notice during the ongoing SIR, due to non-charting and logical inconsistencies, the BLOs (cabin level officers) will visit the homes of such persons to collect the documents and then upload them on ECINet for the decision of the ERO.

“Such persons do not need to be summoned to the ERO/AERO office for a hearing. Only in exceptional circumstances decided by the ERO, the hearing will preferably be held online. The voter can, if necessary, allow any adult family member to attend the hearing on their behalf. The facility for online hearings needs to be strengthened.”

Regarding registration of new voters, the EC insisted that the declaration form attached to Form 6 for SIR has been upheld by the Supreme Court, but for non-SIR periods, appFmahalicable forms will be used for enrollment of new voters as per rules (Registration of Voters Rules 1960).

Also read | The declaration part of Form 6 has changed since SIR in Bihar

Access problem

Another issue that raised the ire of the two election commissioners was the supposed centralization of the administration of voter lists through the ECINet portal, which in many cases was not accessible to police officers in the field.

The statement said that “A committee headed by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC) and including an independent expert from IIT/IIIT will review ECINET to re-check its compliance with the provisions of laws and rules and submit a report to the Commission”. She added that from now on, all new initiatives related to IT modules and portals will be discussed in the Committee of Officers (COO) before being approved by the commission.

“Field officers have role-based access to the ECINET system in accordance with their statutory powers. In case field officers require additional flexibility, it will be operationalized,” he added.

The commission also extended the deadline for submission of claims and objections for Delhi till October 30 and for Maharashtra till October 12.

A number of other administrative measures were also announced. These include sending an advanced agenda and issuing minutes of all committee meetings, compiling annual performance evaluation reports for all officials within a set time frame, approving the committee for officials’ foreign trips, and following all instructions issued by the commissioner to committee officials.

The opposition, which is seeking the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, remained unfazed by the statement. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “CEC thinks it can hide behind protocol. It stands exposed and now it is petrified as the whole country tries to hold it accountable.”

“The ongoing SIR, which has become a method of massive disenfranchisement of several crores of India, must be suspended immediately without delay. In the meantime, nothing short of the resignation of the CEC or prosecution will do.”

Published – 26 Sep 2026 17:47 IST