CJI Surya Kant says Supreme Court never approved modified Form 6 for SIR
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "CJI Surya Kant says Supreme Court never approved modified Form 6 for SIR")
Supreme Court of India (File Picture) Photograph: (AFP)
CJI Surya Kant said the Supreme Court never approved changes to Form 6, contradicting the ECI's September 26 claim on the Bihar SIR judgment.
The Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, on Thursday said that the Supreme Court has not approved any modification to Form 6 used for the inclusion of the names of first-time voters in the electoral rolls in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision. This is a direct and explicit contradiction to the ECI press note of September 26, which claimed that the Supreme Court had upheld the Form 6 declaration in the May 2026 judgment relating to Bihar SIR.
"Any modified Form 6 has not been approved by us. Let's be clear. When the record is produced, we would like to see who has modified it," CJI Surya Kant observed.
The changes to Form 6 mandated that first-time voters who wish to be included in the electoral roll must disclose whether their parents or grandparents were mapped in earlier SIR, even though the statutory form itself remains unamended. The alteration of Form 6 can not be carried out without amending the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. The Indian Express expose showed that two Election Commissioners had raised objections to these modifications, drawing political and administrative backlash on the Election Commission of India and the exercise of power by the Chief Election Commissioner.
The Supreme Court's May 27, 2026 judgment on the Bihar Special Intensive Revision had generally upheld the power of the Election Commission to carry out all roll revisions and tailored documentation. Though the judgment was about Annexure D, concerning age, residence, and citizenship, it did not discuss modification of Form 6 and the addition of a different declaration seeking the SIR mapping of relatives, which was introduced later in July and was never directly before the Court.
The Election Commission, however, removed the SIR declaration added to Form 6 from its ECINET application portal, where SIR has concluded. It announced on September 6, “for non-SIR period, the Forms applicable as per Rules (the Registration of Electors Rules 1960) will be used”.
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The bench comprising the CJI, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana was hearing a petition filed by Adv Shailendra Mani Tripathi seeking the quashing of the 14 decisions which were allegedly taken unilaterally. The ECI has issued a notice on the petition to the Union Government, the Election Commission of India (ECI), and the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Gyanesh Kumar, seeking official files and records on major decisions, including whether major decisions involving deletion of voters from SIR and modifications to Form 6 were taken unilaterally or unanimously.
