Supreme Court assures deleted Maharashtra voters won’t be prosecuted for filing Form 6

Supreme Court said voters removed from Maharashtra’s electoral list during the Special Intensive Revision will not face prosecution for submitting Form 6 to re‑register. The observation was made on Oct 26, 2026 by a bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant during a hearing on a petition that challenges the mass deletions. The court set Nov 5 for a full hearing of the case. Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for petitioner Arun Anantagiri, told the court that thousands of residents in Mumbai and Pune were marked absent and later erased from the rolls because their old buildings are being rebuilt. He cited about 3,500 redevelopment projects in Mumbai and 1,500 in Pune as the source of the displacements. Datar warned that the deleted voters are being asked to file Form 6, which treats them as new voters, and that such misrepresentation is a criminal offence. Chief Justice Kant reassured that no one will be penalised for filing the form. The advocate also urged the Election Commission to issue a separate form exclusively for those whose names were removed in the SIR. He reminded the court that Oct 26 was the deadline for objections to the draft electoral roll and asked for a speedy hearing.

Context

Mass redevelopment in urban Maharashtra is reshaping residential areas, leading to large numbers of voters being temporarily displaced. The Special Intensive Revision is a periodic update of voter lists, and legal safeguards aim to prevent disenfranchisement during such changes.