GUWAHATI: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Monday, October 5, said the Supreme Court had not approved any modified version of Form 6 used for voter registration during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
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“Any modified Form 6 has not been approved by us,” CJI Surya Kant said.
The Court said it would examine the issue concerning the Form 6 issued by the Election Commission of India for new voter registration, while making it clear that it had not approved any “modified” version of the form. Chief Justice Surya Kant said the Supreme Court had not yet taken a decision on the Form 6 issue and would examine it in detail after the relevant records are placed before it.
“Let’s be clear. When the record is produced, we would like to see who has modified,” he added.
The statement came as a three-judge bench headed by CJI Surya Kant was hearing a petition concerning decisions taken by the Election Commission of India in connection with the SIR exercise and seeking action against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The issue relates to an additional declaration attached to Form 6, which is used by new voters to apply for inclusion in electoral rolls.
On September 26, the Election Commission had said in a press statement that the declaration attached to Form 6 for the SIR exercise had been upheld by the Supreme Court.
The ECI had also maintained that the statutory Form 6 itself had not been changed and that the additional declaration was an attachment for the SIR process.
However, during Monday’s hearing, the CJI clarified that the Supreme Court had not approved any modified Form 6 and said the Court wanted to examine the records to determine who had made the modification.
The controversy over the Form 6 declaration had earlier drawn objections from two Election Commissioners, who questioned the manner in which the additional declaration was incorporated.
For the first time, the Election Commission’s online version of Form 6, used for voter registration, carried an additional section seeking details about an applicant’s parents in relation to the last Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, although the statutory form itself remained unchanged.
The ECI later removed the SIR-related declaration from the Form 6 available on its ECINET portal in states where the SIR exercise had been completed. On September 26, the poll panel said that outside the SIR period, the forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, would be used.
