New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Monday said it had not approved any modified Form 6, which is used by the Election Commission (EC) to register new voters. In a September 28 statement responding to the row, the Election Commission had said that the declaration attached to Form 6 had been “upheld” by the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said the court wanted to examine the record to determine who had made the changes. “Modified Form 6 has not been approved by us, let us be very clear,” he said. The Supreme Court, however, refused to pass any interim order to suspend Gyanesh Kumar over allegations that he took decisions unilaterally without the consensus of the two other Election Commissioners.
At the heart of the controversy is an additional declaration in the online registration process requiring new voters to provide details linking themselves or their parents or grandparents to an earlier electoral roll during the SIR exercise. The row gained momentum after an Indian Express report said Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected to the additional requirement.
The timing has become significant because the online requirement was introduced weeks after the Supreme Court delivered its May 27 judgment on the Bihar SIR. The EC has maintained that Form 6 itself was not modified and that the SIR declaration was an additional requirement. In its September statement, the poll panel said the declaration had been upheld by the Supreme Court and that the forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 would continue to apply during “non-SIR” periods.
In its May 27 judgment, the Supreme Court upheld the EC’s authority to conduct the SIR in Bihar and examined the documentation framework prescribed for the exercise. The court held that Form 6 could not necessarily be applied “literally” to an SIR and said the poll panel retained “a degree of residual authority” to formulate an appropriate documentation framework for such an exercise.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi alleged that the online Form 6 was changed illegally and questioned who authorised the change and who instructed TCS, which operates the relevant technology, to implement it. Opposition parties and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have also opposed the SIR exercise and demanded Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation.
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