SC clarification on Form 6 gives Oppn fresh ammo against CEC day before EC office rally

The Supreme Court’s assertion that modifications made to Form 6 by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for enrolling voters “had not been made by us” has come as a shot in the arm for the Opposition a day ahead of its protest march to the poll panel’s Nirvachan Sadan headquarters in New Delhi.

The Opposition’s INDIA bloc, which has redoubled its campaign for Gyanesh Kumar’s removal as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) since The Indian Express’s exposé, will rally all its Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs from Parliament’s Makar Dwar to the Nirvachan Sadan at 10.30 am on Tuesday (October 6).

While MPs from the Aam Aadmi Party, which is no longer part of the INDIA bloc, have also agreed to join the protest march, sources said efforts were still underway to secure the participation of MK Stalin’s DMK, another estranged INDIA bloc member, and Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

Opposition anticipates yet another crackdown

The Opposition grouping had, at a meeting of its senior leadership on September 30, reiterated its demand for the CEC’s “immediate resignation”, failing which, it said, the bloc would press for Kumar’s sacking. Various civil society groups, organisations like the CJP, and youth wings of all Opposition parties too have been protesting in Delhi and other parts of the country for the past week demanding Kumar’s removal and scrapping of the SIR exercise.

Also Read: SC questions Form 6 revision, orders EC to produce records on CEC’s decisions

With extensive traffic restrictions already in place across the national capital’s Lutyen’s Zone and the road outside Nirvachan Sadan heavily fortified with barricades, Opposition leaders anticipate yet another crackdown by the Delhi Police.

Sources in the Congress and the Left parties told The Federal that the Centre and the CEC’s decision to brazen out the raging political storm will only “intensify the protests” further and that the INDIA bloc would soon announce the venue and dates for its five protest rallies against the “BJP-EC nexus for vote chori”.

‘Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao’ campaign

The Congress has also announced the next phase of its campaign against vote chori (vote theft). Headlined “Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao”, the campaign will intensify the party’s ongoing protests against the SIR at the grassroots level, the blueprint for which was finalised by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi in consultation with AICC general secretaries, state in-charges, state unit chiefs, the Indian Youth Congress, Seva Dal, and the National Students Union of India (NSUI) late Monday.

Also Read: Trouble mounts for Gyanesh Kumar as Keralam reopens 2006 graft case

AICC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal said the campaign would see a nationwide mobilisation at the block level with party workers carrying out “vote bachao, desh bachao” padyatras and bike rallies between October 10 and October 20 during which pamphlets detailing the “illegal actions” of Gyanesh Kumar and the lapses in the SIR process would also be distributed to citizens to explain the reasons for the Opposition’s agitation. Subsequently, from October 25 to November 25, the party plans to conduct “village chaupals” across the country as an effort to “identify the 13.30 crore voters who have been deleted” in the SIR process so far.

The Congress is also in the process of identifying six venues in the proximity of Delhi from where the party will flag off “six Chalo Dilli yatras” on November 25 led by six senior party leaders, which will converge in the national capital the following day to mark “Constitution Day” with a “massive protest against vote chori”, Venugopal added.

The row over Form 6

Recent revelations by The Indian Express indicated that the requirement for Form 6 applicants to also declare details of their parents’ listing as voters (or lack of it) in the last Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was arbitrarily added at Kumar’s behest despite disagreements expressed by Election Commissioners SS Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.

That this crucial change was introduced without the statutory form being amended had triggered allegations from the Opposition, election watchdogs, and civil society groups about the “illegality” and “unconstitutionality” of Kumar’s decision.

Also read: SIR voter deletions: Can INDIA Bloc turn discontent into a movement?

In the wake of widespread protests by Opposition parties, activists, and youth pressure groups such as the Cockroach Janta Party following the publication of The Indian Express reports, the ECI had, on September 26, issued a press note claiming, “the declaration attached to Form 6 for SIR has been upheld by the Hon’ble Supreme Court.”

The ECI’s claim was immediately rejected by the Opposition, which cited letters and notes written by Sandhu and Joshi – and referred to by The Indian Express – strongly disagreeing with the alteration made to Form 6.

CJI’s significant observation

During the hearing on Monday (October 5), Chief Justice of India Surya Kant clarified: “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 what.”

Also read: From CEC Gyanesh Kumar to Modi, Shah, Congress set to escalate its SIR battle

The CJI’s clarification came while he, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, was hearing arguments in a catena of petitions variously demanding suspension of Gyanesh Kumar as CEC and quashing of decisions taken “unilaterally” by him during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls.

Though the CJI-led bench declined to pass any ex-parte suspension order against the CEC and, instead, issued notices to Kumar and the poll panel seeking their response to the petitions, Kant’s remark is significant.

‘CEC and Seema Khanna in concert’

Menaka Guruswamy, senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP from Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, argued in the Supreme Court that CEC, “in concert with” the poll panel’s director general (IT) Seema Khanna, “altered Form 6 digitally on the ECINet portal in July 2026”, and that the following month Sandhu “formally recorded that this alteration was ‘unauthorised and illegal’ and was causing arbitrary harassment to young, eligible first-time electors”.

Also Read: Indian voter is angry, but Gyanesh Kumar can still atone for his ‘crimes’

Guruswamy argued that while Sandhu had sought the “immediate withdrawal” of the modification made to Form 6, “the unauthorised form was kept live on the portal”.

As Guruswamy said that Form 6 couldn’t be modified by an arbitrary direction issued unilaterally by the CEC, CJI Surya Kant remarked that the apex court had not approved the change either.

‘CEC modified Form 6 to delete Gen Z voters’

With the CJI’s remark effectively rebutting the poll panel’s September 26 press note, which had claimed that the declaration attached to Form 6 for SIR had been “upheld” by the apex court, the Opposition came in all guns blazing at the CEC once again.

“It is now established beyond doubt that Gyanesh Kumar changed Form 6 illegally and unilaterally. 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,” read a post on X by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

Also Read: SC notice to EC sparks fresh Congress-BJP war of words; NSUI continues protest

While RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha said the CJI’s clarification had exposed the “architect of illegality”, the Congress party’s communications chief Jairam Ramesh said, “Obviously and very clearly, the CEC lied. Form 6 was deliberately modified by the CEC himself to delete Gen Z voters of whom the Prime Minister is simply terrified.”