The Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 27, adjourned the hearing of petitions challenging the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to November 17, allowing the petitioners 10 days to file their rejoinder to the poll body's counter-affidavit.
GUWAHATI: A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana was hearing a batch of petitions challenging Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and alleging that several decisions of the ECI, including those concerning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, were taken without the concurrence of the other two Election Commissioners.
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The bench said it would examine all aspects of the controversy, including allegations that decisions related to the SIR exercise were not unanimous.
“We know everything. We will examine,” Chief Justice Surya Kant said during the hearing.
The adjournment came after the ECI filed its counter-affidavit on Monday, asserting that the decisions in question were unanimous and defending the functioning of the Commission.
In its affidavit, filed in response to a writ petition by Rakesh Kumar Singh alias Rakesh Singh, the ECI argued that the petitions challenging the CEC's functioning relied primarily on a newspaper report. It maintained that a newspaper report could not be treated as evidence in the eyes of the law.
The Commission stated that all three orders relating to the SIR exercise, issued in June 2025, October 2025 and May 2026, were unanimous decisions of the full Commission. The affidavit, filed by the Deputy Election Commissioner, was approved by the CEC and the two other Election Commissioners, it said.
The ECI also clarified that notes, queries or suggestions recorded by the Commissioners while a file was being processed did not constitute decisions of the Commission.
On the issue of Form 6, used for voter registration, the Commission said the form had not been amended during the SIR exercise. It maintained that only the Centre could amend statutory forms and that the declaration required for the SIR was a separate document.
The ECI further stated that, from October 21, online applications would be split into Form 6 and a separate declaration to mirror the procedure followed for physical applications.
Regarding unmapped voters, the Commission said they would not ordinarily be required to attend hearings. Booth Level Officers would collect documents from their homes, while hearings would be limited to exceptional cases and preferably conducted online to prevent harassment.
On the ECINet system, the ECI said names could not be added to or deleted from electoral rolls without an order issued by an Electoral Registration Officer. It also said a committee comprising experts from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) had been constituted to examine compliance.
