SC clarifies it neither approved nor disapproved ECI's modified Form 6

New Delhi, Oct. 12: The Supreme Court on Monday clarified that it had neither approved nor disapproved the Election Commission of India's modified Form 6 for enrolment of new voters, saying the revised form was not before it when it heard the petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar whose judgment was pronounced on May 27, 2025.

Chief Justice Surya Kant, heading a bench also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana, said the court's October 5 observation that it had not approved the modification had to be understood in that context.

The clarification came after counsel for a petitioner told the bench that the ECI had represented that the altered Form 6 had received the Supreme Court's approval and sought a direction on the issue. To this Justice Bagchi said: "What was said was that when the Bihar SIR matter was before us, the new Form 6 was not there. That does not mean it was either approved or disapproved by the Supreme Court."

The CJI similarly pointed out that there had been no application concerning the revised Form 6 before the court during the Bihar SIR proceedings and cautioned against reading the court's earlier observation as a determination on the validity of the modification. "There was no application concerning the new Form 6. That is all we have said. Whether approved or not approved. Don't pick up words like this only for yourself, please," the CJI told the petitioner's counsel.

On October 5, the Supreme Court had said that it had not approved any modification to Form 6. Monday's clarification made it clear that this did not amount to the court disapproving the revised form either, since the issue had never arisen for its consideration. The controversy concerns an additional declaration introduced during the SIR requiring applicants to state whether their own name, or that of a parent or grandparent, appeared in the 2003 SIR electoral roll. The requirement reportedly drew objections from Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.

The modification has been challenged on the ground that the Election Commission could not substantively alter a statutory form without following the procedure prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. The issue acquired significance after the ECI, in a September 26 press note, stated that the declaration attached to Form 6 for the SIR had been upheld by the Supreme Court.

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