Delhi SIR: Supreme Court to Hear Dispute Over Form 6 for Voters Deleted From the Draft Roll
In the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Delhi's voter list, 47,56,722 electors (32.78% of Delhi's electorate) were left out of the draft electoral roll published on 31 August 2026. Many of them were shown as shifted or absent.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has asked these excluded voters to apply again using Form 6, the form meant for people registering as voters for the first time.
On 28 October 2026, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana questioned why a person already on the 2026 roll should have to apply as a new voter. The bench called this a "structural incongruity" (a mismatch in the system) and suggested that such voters be allowed to file the enumeration form or Form 8 (used for change of address) instead.
The Court also asked the ECI not to rush the Delhi SIR, to publish the list of deleted names widely and to explain the process in simple language. The ECI said it would not prosecute people who file Form 6 even though they were on the earlier roll.
On 4 November 2026, the petitioners told the Court that an ECI clarification of 3 November still asked deleted voters to use Form 6. The Court asked them to file a formal application and said the matter will be heard on 19 November 2026. No order on the merits was passed.
Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls
An electoral roll is the official list of voters for a constituency, and only people on it can vote. A Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is a very detailed check of this list, in which it is rebuilt almost from scratch. Officials go house to house, give an enumeration form to every listed voter and collect it back. Names of people who do not return the form, or who are found dead, shifted or duplicated, are left out of the draft roll, and people can then file claims and objections before the final roll is published.
The dispute is about what happens to a voter whose name drops out at the enumeration stage of an SIR. The ECI treats them like a new applicant under Form 6, while the petitioners argue that someone already on the roll should be able to come back through the enumeration form or Form 8.
Representation of the People Act, 1950: The Law Behind Voter Lists and Seats
The Representation of the People Act, 1950 (RPA 1950) is the law made by Parliament that decides who can be a voter and how voter lists are prepared, corrected and revised. The detailed procedure, including the forms voters must fill, is set out in the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, made under this Act. Together they form the rulebook for the voter list.
The Form 6 versus Form 8 question is really a question about these rules: whether a deleted voter who was on the earlier roll is a "new" applicant or an existing elector seeking correction or a change of address.
Article 326 and the Right to Vote
Article 326 of the Constitution says that elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies are held on the basis of adult suffrage. This means every citizen who is 18 or older on the qualifying date can vote, unless disqualified by law for reasons such as non-residence, unsound mind, crime or corrupt practice. India gave this right to all adults from the very first general elections of 1951-52.
The case tests how an administrative step, such as the choice of form, affects the right under Article 326. If lakhs of existing voters must re-register as new voters, the question is whether the process puts an unfair burden on people who already had this right.
- Delhi electors excluded from the SIR draft roll: 47,56,722 (32.78% of the electorate)
- Draft roll published: 31 August 2026
- Delhi voters covered: about 1.45 crore; about 97 lakh returned enumeration forms
- Supreme Court bench: CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, Justice V. Mohana
- Key hearing on Form 6 issue: 28 October 2026; next hearing listed for 19 November 2026
- Form 6: new registration; Form 7: objection/deletion; Form 8: shifting, correction, EPIC replacement, PwD marking
- Redesigned forms in force since 1 August 2022 (Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules, 2022)
- Voting age 18: 61st Constitutional Amendment Act, 1988