Supreme Court says new Form 6 was neither approved nor disapproved

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said it had neither approved nor disapproved the new Form 6, the application for enrolment in the electoral roll, and that the question was not adjudicated when it heard the matter concerning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.

The observation came from a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, which was hearing a petition against the changes made to Form 6 to register new voters during SIR exercises in several states.

"There is no adjudication on the new Form 6. That is all we have said," Justice Bagchi observed. He said the new Form 6 was not before the court when the Bihar SIR matter was heard and decided.

The counsel for the petitioner said the Election Commission had claimed the court approved the form. The petition, filed by Priya Mishra, challenges the alterations to Form 6 against the Union government, The Hindu reported.

The altered Form 6 requires applicants to declare whether they, their parents or their grandparents were registered in the previous SIR rolls, and makes a response to those mapping and linkage questions a precondition for submitting the application.

The bench said the plea would be heard along with similar pending SIR petitions listed for October 27.

On October 5, while hearing a separate plea, the court said it had not approved any modifications to Form 6 being used by the poll panel during the SIR exercise in various states.

The plea cites Section 18 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which says the view of the majority prevails where there is a difference of opinion in the poll body. It alleges the ancestral-detail and previous-SIR-link requirement was introduced through the panel's software without the statutory amendment required under the electoral rules.

The Election Commission had issued a press release on September 26 suggesting the apex court had upheld the Form 6 declaration in the May 2026 judgment on the Bihar SIR.

(With inputs from PTI)