The Supreme Court has clarified that it has not heard any matter related to the modification of Election Commission's Form 6, contrary to claims made by the Election Commission. The Chief Justice emphasized that no modified Form 6 has been approved by the court.
On Monday, the Supreme Court made a clarification regarding the Election Commission’s Form 6, which is used for registering new voters. The court stated that it has not heard any matter related to the modification of this form, reported Bar and Bench. This comes after Chief Justice Surya Kant's statement on October 5, where he verbally observed that the Supreme Court had not approved any changes to Form 6 in relation to petitions seeking the suspension of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar for alleged unilateral decisions.
During the hearing on Monday, the petitioners said that the poll panel had represented the new Form 6 as having the Supreme Court’s approval. However, Kant clarified that the court has not heard any matter related to the form. Kant emphasized, 'That is all we have said. Whether approved or not approved, don’t pick up words like this only for yourself, please.'
On September 26, the Election Commission had claimed in a statement that a declaration attached to Form 6 for the voter roll revision exercise had been upheld by the Supreme Court. The poll panel had also announced that the old version of Form 6 would be used in periods when SIR is not underway. However, the Chief Justice clarified on Monday that no modified Form 6 has been approved by the court.
The controversy over Form 6 stemmed from changes made in the declaration section of the form, which became mandatory for applicants to fill out. This change was objected to by election commissioners Sushil Kumar Joshi and Ashok Lavasa, who raised concerns about the amendment not being in accordance with the rules.
Petitions were filed before the court after The Indian Express reported on September 23 that Sandhu and Joshi had formally objected 14 times in 10 months to decisions by the poll panel related to the special intensive revision, saying some had been taken without their knowledge. Their objections were reportedly related to changes to Form 6, appeals against the inclusion of voters in West Bengal and the handling of voter data in Goa, among other matters. The two election commissioners had also raised concerns over access to the digital electoral roll database.
Source:
Scroll.in
