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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (October 28) questioned the Election Commission of India why a voter who is already on the electoral roll should have to fill Form 6 to seek inclusion in the draft roll simply because the Election Commission of India (ECI) official could not reach them during special intensive revision (SIR).

Hearing the writ petition filed by Anjali Bharadwaj and Amrita Johri over the various issues in the SIR exercise in Delhi, a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana pointed out that Form 6 is meant only for first-time voters, where the applicants have to declare that they have not voted before. 

The top court underscored that in Delhi, there would be various persons on whom enumeration forms could not be served as they changed their addresses, or have temporarily gone out of the city for work.

“Instead of burdening them to approach you, why don’t you reach out to them?” CJI Kant asked, as quoted by Supreme Court Observer. 

Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners, had submitted that 47 lakh persons from Delhi’s 1.45 crore voters had not returned their enumeration forms, and of them 43 lakh of these had been classified under ASDD (Absentee / Shifted / Duplicate / Deceased) list. He pointed out that many voters had not received their........

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