The Supreme Court on Monday orally observed that it has not approved any modification to Form 6 (to be filled in by people seeking to register as voters for the first time) being used by the Election Commission of India (ECI) during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana made the clarification while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking action against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
The PIL was filed in light of a recent Indian Express report which claimed that the CEC had taken many decisions concerning the SIR of electoral rolls unilaterally, despite two of the three Election Commissioners objecting to such decisions.
During today's hearing, Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for the petitioner, raised concerns over changes made to Form 6, which is used by eligible citizens to apply for inclusion of their names in electoral rolls.
Responding to the submissions, CJI Kant said,
“Any modified Form 6 has not been approved by us. Let us be clear. When the record is produced, we would like to see who has modified.”
The modified Form 6 introduced an additional declaration requiring applicants seeking inclusion in the electoral roll to state whether their own name, or that of a parent or grandparent, appeared in an earlier SIR-era electoral roll.
Critics argue that this could create an additional hurdle for first-time voters, particularly those whose families were not on the old rolls, and that the ECI could not alter a statutory form without following the procedure for amending the relevant rules.
The requirement had also reportedly drawn objections from Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. According to The Indian Express, they had raised concerns over incorporating the declaration without an amendment to the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
The issue was compounded by reports that applicants could not submit the online form without answering the declaration, despite it not being marked as mandatory.
The Supreme Court today clarified that it had not approved the modified Form 6 in its earlier orders in SIR-related cases.
The Court's clarification came days after the Election Commission of India (ECI) said, in a September 26 press note, that the additional declaration attached to Form 6 during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) had been upheld by the Court.
"The declaration attached to Form 6 for SIR has been upheld by the Hon’ble Supreme Court. For non-SIR period, the Forms applicable as per Rules (the Registration of Electors Rules 1960) will be used," the statement reads.
The ECI was referring to the Supreme Court's May 27, 2026, judgment on the SIR exercise in Bihar, in which the Court considered the ECI's power to require additional documentation for the revision of electoral rolls.
The additional declaration currently attached to Form 6 was introduced subsequently.
The ECI has maintained that Form 6, the statutory form prescribed for inclusion of a person's name in the electoral roll, was not amended per se. According to the ECI, the declaration was an additional requirement applicable during the SIR exercise.
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