The Election Commission of India has taken a series of actions after controversy around the special intensive revision (SIR) broke out over reports of irregularities in the functioning of the poll body and Form 6, among others.

In its September 23 report, The Indian Express stated that two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had raised 14 objections in over 10 months, with an instance of four objections in a single day to decisions and orders that, according to them, were taken without their knowledge.

The objections were also copied to the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The findings of the investigative report revived the Opposition's battle against the ruling BJP and Gyanesh Kumar.

Although the poll body had issued clarification on aspects of the reports, it has taken measures to quell the uproar.

Form 6 declaration: The report had claimed that the two ECs had raised objections over the changes in Form 6 that required a voter to answer additional questions. In its clarification, the poll body had said the additions were not made to Form 6; instead, a declaration was added separately to Form 6 for SIR, which was in line with its power as upheld by the Supreme Court during the Bihar SIR.

The EC has since removed the declaration from Form 6 in the states where the SIR was concluded.

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ECIRNet: The software that grants access to EROs to make necessary changes to the electoral roll came under scrutiny after concerns were raised that the EROs were not able to make changes as their access was restricted from Delhi headquarters. This ignited questions over centralised control of electoral rolls. In the wake of the controversy, the poll body has formed a committee, headed by the senior deputy election commissioner, with an independent expert from IIT/IIIT, to review the software.

Notices and hearings: The SIR notices have also emerged as a key flashpoint, as voters had to run from pillar to post themselves to keep their names intact in the voter list. After the controversy erupted, the poll body announced that the booth level officers (BLOs) will now visit those who have received notices and collect the necessary documents and upload them to ECINet for the ERO to decide.

The poll body expects that the measure will resolve mass notices and, in exceptional cases, as decided by the ERO, would go to hearings.

No Voter left out campaign: Election Commission on October 1 directed all Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) to hold a special drive for left-out and first-time voters.

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As part of the campaign, the BLOs will compare the latest roll with the pre-SIR electoral roll to make a list of missing names. The BLO will subsequently visit their homes, covering 20-25 electors per week, to help people file Form 6 in 20 states and UTs where SIR is completed.

Form 7: After bulk Form 7 objections in Karnataka and Odisha, the ECI on October 9 capped the number of Form 7 applications per elector to 10 across the claims-and-objections period and five in a month.