Bihar voter declaration attached to Form 6 changed during revision process
The declaration accompanying India’s Form 6 voter-registration application has changed across phases of the Special Intensive Revision in Bihar. Applicants were initially asked for birth-related documents; later versions required details from the previous electoral revision, prompting objections from two Election Commissioners and questions about the legal authority for the changes.
The declaration accompanying Form 6, used for new voter registrations, has undergone major changes during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, according to an analysis reported by The Hindu. The first version of the declaration asked applicants to establish when and where they were born. Applicants born before July 1, 1987, had to provide their own document.
Those born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, had to submit their own document and one parent’s document. Applicants born after December 2, 2004, were required to provide documents for themselves and both parents. Where a parent was not an Indian citizen, the declaration also required a copy of that parent’s valid passport and visa from the time of the applicant’s birth.
The requirements were linked to citizenship provisions. In the second phase, applicants were asked whether their own or their parents’ names appeared in the electoral rolls from the previous intensive revision. They also had to provide the relevant Assembly constituency, polling-booth and electoral-roll serial numbers.
An online option was available for people who did not have the information, but applicants reportedly could not submit the form without completing the field even though it was not formally marked mandatory. The added requirement remained in the third phase, announced in May. Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu raised concerns in separate notes and letters in May and August 2026.
Form 6 is attached to the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. The report notes that because it forms part of an official rule, the Union government, through the Ministry of Law and Justice, has authority to amend it rather than the Election Commission acting alone. ECI officials said Form 6 itself had not been changed and that only a separate declaration had been added after approval by the full commission.
They also said changes to the online system simplified electronic signing and that the Supreme Court had upheld the ECI’s authority to add the declaration on May 27.
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