New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday said it would hear November 19 concerns raised over the Election Commission’s recent clarification allowing voters, whose names were omitted from the draft electoral rolls, to seek fresh enrolment through Form 6 during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Delhi.
Observing that people need not be apprehensive as the court was hearing the matter, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana asked petitioners Anjali Bharadwaj and Amrita Johri to file an appropriate application placing the EC’s November 3 clarification on record.
The bench said the matter would be taken up for hearing November 19.
The CJI also indicated that the bench could consider asking the EC to extend the deadline, if necessary.
The issue was brought to the court’s notice by advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners.
He said that the EC’s November 3 clarification appeared to be contrary to the Supreme Court’s observations during the October 28 hearing, when it had questioned the requirement of asking previously enrolled voters to apply afresh through Form 6.
He said that voters whose names figured in the 2026 electoral rolls but were subsequently omitted during the SIR exercise should be allowed to seek restoration through Form 8 or the enumeration form, rather than being compelled to register as new voters.
In its November 3 communication addressed to the chief electoral officers of states, the poll panel clarified that electors whose names do not appear in the draft electoral roll can submit Form 6 to seek inclusion in the final roll, irrespective of whether they had been enrolled previously.
The EC maintained that submitting Form 6 in such circumstances would not, by itself, amount to a false declaration, even if the applicant had voted in earlier elections.
It further clarified that no action under Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, would be initiated against an elector merely because the person had figured in a previous electoral roll and subsequently submitted Form 6 during or after the SIR process.
This protection would apply provided the elector was not already enrolled in another parliamentary or assembly constituency and the declaration otherwise complied with the law, the poll panel said.
The poll panel also relied on the Delhi High Court’s observations in Nilotpal Datta v. EC, stating that voters need not apprehend prosecution for false declaration merely because they had been enrolled or had voted previously.
October 28, the top court said that the right to vote is vital and it cannot be forfeited even if a voter is absent.
It had asked the EC to devise a mechanism to reach out to 47 lakh of 1.45 crore Delhi voters whose names were struck out in the draft voter list during the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls.
The top court questioned the poll panel on the requirement for previously enrolled voters, whose names are omitted from the draft rolls, to file Form 6 meant for first-time enrolment to seek inclusion.
It also advised the EC not to fix the deadline and accept enumeration forms from deleted voters instead of asking them to fill Form 6, 7 and 8.
You see how to reduce this gap of 43 lakh. We will take up after two weeks.
One suggestion, please publish the list telling that you are the 43 lakh persons who were earlier shown in so and so… that we have not been able to contact you, please see that you are able to contact us, the CJI orally observed, adding, Ask them to contact nearest BLO and fill Form 8.
The EC told the bench that it will consider accepting late enumeration forms and will extend the October 30 deadline if needed.
The plea sought a direction to the EC to place in the public domain the list of electors who were issued notices during the SIR of electoral rolls in Delhi along with specific reasons for each notice.
Bhushan had said approximately 47 lakh voters had been omitted from Delhi’s draft electoral rolls, which had covered around 1.45 crore electors before the SIR.
August 31, the EC published the draft electoral rolls following the SIR, reporting that approximately 47 lakh names had been omitted from a pre-revision electorate of around 1.45 crore.
