What the Election Commission's new online registration requirement means for voters

📌 Summary:

• The Election Commission of India's (ECI) online portal ECINET now requires new-voter applicants to declare whether their parents were in the last Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls — down to the Assembly constituency, polling booth (part) number and elector serial number
• Concern: this new "declaration form" has been inserted into Form 6 (the statutory new-enrolment form) even though Form 6 has NOT been amended through the legal procedure — no gazette notification yet from the Law & Justice Ministry
• If parents were not in the last SIR, the applicant must instead give parents' names and EPIC (voter ID) numbers, if available
• SIR status: completed in 10 states and 3 UTs since June last year; underway in 19 states/UTs; not yet announced for Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and J&K; in Assam, SIR is deferred until the NRC exercise is complete
• The new parental-declaration requirement applies in all states where SIR is done/underway, except Bihar
• Legal backing: Article 326 guarantees adult citizens' right to enrol; the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (Section 28) empowers the Centre to make registration rules after consulting the ECI, and such rules must be laid before Parliament; Form 6 is part of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, so any change needs a gazette amendment

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 Polity — electoral rolls, ECI powers, RPA 1950, delegated legislation and procedural propriety; citizenship-linked enrolment debates

📝 Prelims Facts:

• Form 6 = statutory form for new voter enrolment under RPA 1950 and Registration of Electors Rules, 1960
• ECINET = ECI's online portal for registration, corrections and deletions; EPIC = Electors Photo Identity Card
• Article 326 = universal adult suffrage; SIR = Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls

🔑 Key Term: Special Intensive Revision (SIR) — an intensive, house-to-house revision of electoral rolls conducted by the ECI to update and verify the voter list.