37% of pre-SIR Form-6 applications rejected due to absence of declaration form

The main issue was a timing change by the Election Commission of India. Applicants submitted Form-6 before Telangana’s Special Intensive Revision began, when the SIR declaration was not required. Later, officials treated the missing declaration as a reason for rejection. This affected people seeking first-time voter enrolment.

The declaration was an attachment created specifically for the SIR process. It asked for details about the applicant or the applicant’s parents or relatives from the 2002 revision. Applicants lacking those details had to provide one of 12 listed citizenship documents. Pre-SIR applicants, however, had applied before this requirement existed.

By October 28, 2026, 1,92,574 of 5,20,331 pre-SIR applications had been rejected. Officials attributed the rejections to the missing declaration, despite its earlier non-mandatory status. Rejected applicants’ names will not appear in the final rolls unless they submit fresh applications with the declaration.

Form-6 is the application through which a person seeks fresh enrolment as a voter. The article describes thousands of such applications submitted in Telangana before the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, began. These applications were meant to add eligible people to the electoral rolls.

SIR is an intensive exercise to revise the voter list. During this process, applicants were asked to attach a declaration containing details about themselves or their parents or relatives from the 2002 revision. If those details were unavailable, they had to submit one of 12 listed documents as proof of citizenship. The declaration was an SIR-specific attachment.

The distinction became important because the Election Commission later said the declaration was not needed with Form-6 in States where SIR was not underway. Telangana applicants had already submitted their forms before SIR, yet many were rejected for lacking the newly required attachment. The episode shows how procedural changes can affect pending enrolment claims.

During the pre-SIR period from January 1 to June 14, 2026, Telangana received 5,20,331 applications for new voter enrolment. These were Form-6 applications submitted before the declaration became mandatory during the SIR process. The figures show the scale of the administrative dispute.

By October 28, 2026, officials had accepted 3,22,785 applications as new enrolments. They had rejected 1,92,574 applications, while 4,972 were still awaiting processing. The rejected applications represented a 37% rejection rate, according to the data obtained from the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer’s office.

The applications were not disposed of within the one-week period described in the Registration of Electors Rules, 196, and were processed alongside later SIR-stage forms. Officials linked the rejections mainly to the missing declaration. The pending and rejected cases therefore remained important because they could affect who appears on the final electoral rolls.

The declaration form was an attachment used specifically during the Special Intensive Revision. It asked applicants to provide details about themselves or their parents or relatives from the 2002 SIR. These details were intended to connect the applicant or family to information from that earlier revision.

If applicants did not have the required 2002 details, the form required them to submit any one of 12 documents listed as proof of citizenship. The article does not identify the documents individually. This alternative mattered because applicants could proceed through documentary evidence when the older revision information was unavailable.

The requirement later caused problems in Telangana. Many people had submitted Form-6 before SIR started, when the declaration was not mandatory. Yet officials rejected their applications for not including it. An Electoral Registration Officer said declaration forms were later being sent door-to-door through Booth Level Officers to help process the older applications.

The immediate consequence of rejection is exclusion from the final electoral rolls. Officials told the article that names from the rejected applications will not be reflected in those rolls unless the applicants submit the form again. This makes the rejection more than a paperwork issue because it can prevent the applicant’s enrolment from being completed.

The fresh submission must address the missing declaration. An Electoral Registration Officer said declaration forms were being sent door-to-door through Booth Level Officers to process pre-SIR Form-6 applications. The article does not describe a separate appeal route or give a deadline for resubmission. It does state that the rejected applicants must apply afresh.

This process follows the rejection of 1,92,574 applications by October 28, 2026. The applications were filed before the declaration became mandatory, but officials still attributed rejection to its absence. Applicants who do not resubmit risk remaining outside the final rolls, while pending cases continue to be processed.

The Election Commission of India set the changing requirements for the SIR process. It also announced that the declaration was not required with Form-6 in States where SIR was not underway. In Telangana, the timing of that clarification mattered because many applications had already been filed.

Electoral Registration Officers process enrolment claims and objections. The article says they should exhibit claims at their offices and dispose of them within a week under the Registration of Electors Rules, 196. EROs also handled notices, document collection, and uploading material onto the ERONET software during the revision.

Booth Level Officers work directly with electors at the local level. They distribute declaration forms, notices, and enumeration forms, and collect documents from voters. The article says BLOs were additionally burdened with ERO duties. They also had to contact voters who had not responded to notices, while many could not attend special enrolment camps on October 15 and 16.

An electoral roll revision is a process for updating the official list of voters. In this case, it included an Enumeration Phase, a Notice Phase, a Claims and Objections Phase, and later processing of applications. People seeking fresh enrolment used Form-6, while officials checked applications and supporting documents.

The article gives a concrete example of how the process worked. During SIR, applicants were asked for 2002 revision details or one of 12 listed citizenship documents. Officials also issued notices and collected documents. Applications were meant to be displayed and disposed of within a week, but pre-SIR forms were processed much later alongside other SIR-related submissions.

Accurate rolls are important because the final list determines whether an applicant’s name is reflected as an enrolment. The article reports that 73.39 lakh electors were removed from draft rolls and grouped as Absent, Shifted, Dead, or Duplicate. It also shows that procedural errors and missed forms can leave eligible applicants out unless cases are corrected.