The Supreme Court on October 28 questioned why voters deleted from Delhi’s draft electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) are being asked to file Form 6, a form meant for first-time registrants. A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant asked why these voters could not instead use the original enumeration form or Form 8, which covers address changes.
According to Scroll.in, the bench, which also includes Justice Joymalya Bagchi, was hearing a petition filed by activists Anjali Bharadwaj and Amrita Johri challenging the Election Commission’s handling of voters removed from Delhi’s rolls. The Election Commission’s deletions have been one of the most contested parts of the SIR exercise, which began in Bihar in 2025 and was later extended to Delhi and 11 other states and union territories.
Roughly 47.7 lakh names were struck off Delhi’s draft voter list on August 31, about a third of the Union Territory’s electorate before the revision began. Petitioners’ counsel Prashant Bhushan told the court that 43 lakh of those deletions were because the voters had shifted addresses, not because they were ineligible.
Why Form 6 is the problem
Form 6 is designed for citizens registering as voters for the first time, and it requires the applicant to declare they have never been an elector before. Bhushan argued that forcing previously enrolled, deleted voters to sign that declaration amounts to a false statement, since many of them have voted in Delhi for years. He said only Form 8, used for address or detail corrections by existing electors, should apply to voters who were removed for having moved.
The bench’s own suggestion went further: it asked why the deleted voters, many of whom may have missed the July enumeration phase because they were travelling or had shifted, could not simply be allowed to submit the original enumeration form instead of either Form 6 or Form 8.
What the Election Commission said
Counsel for the Election Commission told the bench that the authorities would examine its suggestions, Scroll.in reported. No final order was passed at Wednesday’s hearing, and the petition remains pending.
The exchange follows a pattern. Two days earlier, in a related Maharashtra SIR matter, the same bench verbally assured voters that nobody would be prosecuted for submitting Form 6 to get their names restored. On October 19, the Delhi High Court had separately called a voter’s fear of being accused of a false declaration over Form 6 “misplaced,” noting that the poll panel itself had directed its use. Earlier this month, the Election Commission had told poll panels in states where the revision was already complete to use Form 6 to restore eligible voters who had been wrongly excluded.
How many voters are affected
The scale is the reason the case has drawn attention beyond Delhi. Close to 47.7 lakh people were taken off the capital’s draft rolls in a single revision cycle, and Bhushan’s figure of 43 lakh shifted voters would mean the large majority of deletions were address related rather than cases of ineligibility or duplication. Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi has separately argued that deleted voters cannot legitimately use Form 6 at all, since it is meant only for new voters, and has accused the Election Commission of effectively pushing people into a false declaration.
The dispute also carries consequences beyond the voter list itself. The Scroll.in report notes that in BJP-ruled states, the SIR process has already been cited to deny ration cards to people removed from the rolls, and police have in some cases denied passport renewals on the same basis.
What happens next
Delhi’s claims and objections window on the draft rolls closes on October 30, two days after this hearing, which is why the petitioners sought an urgent hearing in the first place. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether the Form 6 declaration itself is valid for restored voters; in May, it had already upheld the Election Commission’s legal power to conduct the SIR exercise, while saying the Commission cannot itself decide a person’s citizenship.
With no order yet on the specific Form 6 question, deleted Delhi voters remain in the position the bench described on Wednesday: asked to use a form built for people who have never voted before, in order to get back onto a roll they were already on.
FAQ
What is Form 6?
Form 6 is the Election Commission’s form for a person registering as a voter for the first time. It includes a declaration that the applicant has never previously been enrolled as an elector.
How many Delhi voters were removed from the draft rolls?
About 47.7 lakh names were deleted on August 31, roughly a third of Delhi’s pre-revision electorate, according to Scroll.in’s reporting on the case.
When is the deadline to file claims on Delhi’s draft rolls?
October 30, two days after this Supreme Court hearing.
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