Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 5: The Supreme Court on Monday contradicted the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) claim that it had “approved” the alterations made to Form 6 for registering new voters during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across several States and distanced itself from the current controversy.
“We are making it clear, any modifications to Form 6 have not been made by us,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading a three-judge Bench which also included Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, said. Form 6 is a statutory form provided in the Schedule of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. Modifications to Form 6 should be done through the proper law-making process, and not carried out unilaterally by administrative actions.
The Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had issued a press notice on September 26 stating: Changes in Form-6 were made as per the Supreme Court’s directions, the Congress party posted on X. “But now the Supreme Court has clearly stated ‘We have not approved any modified Form-6’,” the Opposition party said. “Gyanesh is carrying out vote theft across the entire country and now, upon being caught, is resorting to such fraud to mislead the nation.”
Upping the ante after the Supreme Court’s denial and issuance of notice to the poll panel, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), along with everyone else involved in what he described as a “criminal assault” on democracy, would be held responsible.
Mr Gandhi said Mr Kumar was “abusing” his position under the BJP rule alleging that the poll body chief deliberately and illegally changed the Form 6 that he described as an established fact. “It is now established beyond doubt that Gyanesh Kumar changed Form 6 illegally and unilaterally,” the former Congress president said on X. “This is just one more proof of him abusing his position to help the BJP. He and everyone else involved in this criminal assault on our democracy will be held accountable.”
The SC said it would look into the matter concerning Form 6 issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and which is needed for registering as a new voter. What was clear was that the “modified” Form 6 has not been approved by the Supreme Court, it said. “The modified Form 6 has not been approved by us. This is clear,” the Chief Justice said.
The ECI has said Form 6 itself has not been amended; it maintained that it only added an extra declaration to be used by new voters for the voter roll clean-up exercise Special Intensive Revision (SIR). This declaration, added in July this year, needed voters to link their details with parental or grandparent records from previous electoral rolls.
On September 29, Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale cited what he claimed was a response from the Law Ministry to a query under the Right to Information Act (RTI) that said the ministry had no information with it on any proposal from the ECI to amend Form 6 or the rules governing it.
Gokhale referred to a Supreme Court judgement which came in May and which he said was cited by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar to claim the Supreme Court had “upheld the ECI’s power to change Form 6” – while the additional declaration rule came two months later. “How can the Supreme Court uphold an action by ECI that has not even been taken yet?” he had said.
While the controversy surrounding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls continues following a report claiming ‘dissent’ within members of Election Commission of India (ECI) over the drive, a sitting Supreme Court judge has said an exercise which disenfranchises people is “intrinsically arbitrary and a negation of the constitutional order.”
The remarks were made by Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, who was delivering an address at the NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, Telangana, on Sunday.
He said “no whataboutery can justify” the act of taking away the voting rights of millions of citizens in India. The Constitution cannot create two classes of citizens: one with voting rights and another without it, he declared, while stressing that the Article 326 cannot be tampered with.
Further, Justice Bhuyan said no court or institution in India is bigger than the Constitution.
“If any process results in disenfranchising millions and millions of Indian citizens making them second class citizens in their own country in the sense of being citizens without a voting right, such a process is intrinsically arbitrary. No amount of whataboutery can justify it,” he said. “Such a process strikes at the very heart of the Constitution and he would go to the extent of saying that it is a negation of the Constitutional order which has been adopted based under the Constitution of India,” Justice Bhuyan added.
Justice Bhuyan’s remarks have further ignited the row, with opposition parties now targeting the government and saying the sitting Supreme Court judge has exposed the CEC “lock, stock and barrel.” The Congress, in a statement, said Kumar has now “lost all moral right” to remain in the office.
“This conclusively proves that the CEC — constitutional functionary himself — has violated the Constitution itself both in letter and spirit,” the party said in a statement.
Trinamool Congress’ Lok Sabha member Mahua Moitra also targeted the poll body and the government, while lauding Justice Bhuyan over his remarks. “It’s easy for a judge to grow a spine the day he retires. It’s a first when a sitting judge speaks truth to power,” she said on X.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday said his party has three “non-negotiable demands” — resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, annulment of SIR and conduct of elections on ballot paper instead of EVMs.
Mr Kharge said across the country, Congress workers and INDIA bloc partners were on the streets over these three issues. The Congress stands with civil society members and youth organisations that were struggling on these issues in various places across the country, Mr Kharge said.
The CEC Gyanesh Kumar has betrayed the Constitution in letter and spirit at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the Congress alleged. The Opposition party also said the Supreme Court has a remarkable opportunity to restore public confidence in the Election Commission following “damning revelations” regarding its functioning.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Monday alleged that the CEC Gyanesh Kumar was an “enemy of the country” and had gone underground, following widespread protests by Opposition parties seeking his resignation. The Election Commission (EC) should meet Opposition MPs who have faced injustice in states where the poll body helped the ruling BJP, Raut told reporters. All Opposition MPs will march to the Election Commission of India’s office in New Delhi on Tuesday, he said.