The Delhi High Court has ruled that voters’ fears of making a false declaration by using Form 6 to restore a name deleted during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls are “misplaced,” according to Scroll, which cited Bar and Bench, in a report on Monday, October 19, 2026. The court closed a petition by two voters whose names were deleted during the SIR enumeration in Delhi. The Election Commission has directed that Form 6, which is designed for first-time voter registration, be used to restore deleted names, and the petitioners argued that signing it would amount to a false declaration, and asked for Form 8, the form for corrections, instead. In Delhi, 97.5 lakh voters remain in the draft rolls, 47.7 lakh names were removed from the list published on August 31, and 33 lakh voters were flagged with notices.
The case that the court’s reasoning gives voters a workable route is that it removes a fear that might have stopped them from applying. The court held that the concern about a false declaration is misplaced, so a voter who was deleted can use Form 6, as the Election Commission has directed, without being treated as having made a false statement. With 47.7 lakh names removed from the list published on August 31, a clear form and an assurance that its use is legitimate may help many of them to return to the rolls. The verification deadline is October 29 and the final rolls are due on November 4, so there is limited time, and a court ruling that the process is lawful lets voters and officials proceed without waiting for further litigation.
The case that questions remain is made by the petitioners and by outside experts. The petitioners said Form 6 is a first-time registration form and that signing it would be a false declaration for someone who was already registered, and they asked for the correction form instead, according to Scroll. Former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi disputed the approach, saying that Form 6 cannot legally be completed by deleted voters. The scale of the exercise adds to the concern: 47.7 lakh names removed, 33 lakh voters flagged for non-linkage or discrepancies, and only 97.5 lakh left in the draft rolls, with a deadline of October 29 to complete verification, only ten days after the report. The report did not give the date of the judgment.
The ruling matters for Delhi’s voters and for the wider political argument over the SIR because the exercise has been the subject of protests and petitions across the country, and deletions affect who can vote in future elections. For voters who were removed, the practical question is which form to use and by what date. For the Election Commission, the ruling supports its instruction to use Form 6, while the criticism from a former chief election commissioner shows that the debate over the legal basis continues in the courts and on the streets.
The High Court has said the false-declaration fear is misplaced and closed the petition. For voters, the deadline of October 29 and the final rolls on November 4 now matter more than the legal argument.
Image: The control unit of an electronic voting machine (file photo). Photo by Shagil Kannur, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Leave a Reply