00:00From sunset to the streets and now to the Supreme Court, the SIR battle is just getting bigger by
00:05the day. The battle played out in the Supreme Court earlier today with the Election Commission
00:09and Chief Election Commissioner facing growing questions. While the Supreme Court has refused
00:14an interim plea seeking the suspension of CEC Gyanesh Kumar, it issued notices to the poll
00:20panel and the centre seeking their detailed responses on decisions allegedly taken by the
00:25CEC without the approval of the other two election commissioners. The bench observed that the
00:31decision, or should I say decisions, of the ECI have to be either unanimous or taken by a majority.
00:40It also made it clear that if there is any illegality, the consequences will follow. However,
00:46the highlight of the hearing was the court's statement in Form 6, where it said that the
00:50Supreme Court did not approve the modified Form 6. Before I bring in the guests to ask
00:57who approved the modified Form 6 and how, take a look at this report.
01:15Go, Gyanesh, go.
01:20The chant is getting louder. The protests are only getting sharper. The pressure on Chief
01:34Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is mounting. And at the centre of the battle is Form 6. A form
01:45meant for every new voter is now at the centre of a fresh political and legal storm.
01:54The Supreme Court today said it will examine the controversy over the modified Form 6.
02:02And the Chief Justice of India made one thing clear, that the modified Form 6 hasn't been approved by us.
02:10So, who changed Form 6?
02:14Did the EC act alone?
02:18Or was the decision taken by the Election Commission as a whole?
02:23That is the question now before the Supreme Court.
02:28So, what exactly had changed?
02:30Form 6 is the application a new voter fills to get their name added to the electoral roll.
02:36But an additional declaration was attached to the online form.
02:40It asked applicants to establish a link with an earlier electoral roll through their parents or grandparents.
02:47And that additional requirement soon became major point of contention, even within the Election Commission.
02:54According to an Indian Express report, Election Commissioners Sukhbi Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections to the additional
03:02declaration.
03:02The EC later changed the process.
03:05In states where SIR has been completed, the additional declaration has now been removed.
03:11In simple terms, if SIR is over, then there is no need for extra old roll linkage declaration.
03:18But where SIR is still underway, the additional declaration continues to apply during the SIR process.
03:24The Election Commission has so far maintained that this was an additional SIR document and that Form 6 itself was
03:32not formally amended.
03:34But here is where the controversy erupted.
03:36The additional requirement became part of the online application process.
03:40And applicants couldn't proceed without completing it.
03:45That is now fueling a fresh political attack on Gyanesh Kumar.
03:50Leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi has accused the CEC of taking illegal and unilateral decisions, calling it an alleged abuse
03:59of his position.
04:00His party is also echoing the same.
04:03There have been some very serious changes and questions added to the Form 6, which many have been questioning and
04:09how these changes happened.
04:11Was this taken unanimously by the Election Commission?
04:14Did the government, the executive approve it?
04:16And now the court itself is asking how these changes have been made.
04:20And I think finally today, the conscience of the Supreme Court has been pricked.
04:25CJP then claimed the Election Commissioner had apparently taken down its September 26th press release, which it said claimed the
04:33Supreme Court had upheld the Form 6 order.
04:36But the government was quick enough to fact-check deleted EC note claim.
04:41The government says the September 26th press release is still available in the public domain and hasn't been taken down
04:48by the Election Commission.
04:51The BJP has hit back at the Congress over its claim that the CEC changed Form 6 to help the
04:59BJP, saying that Rahul Gandhi is misleading the nation and that the court has not declared Form 6 illegal.
05:31As the political battle over Gyanesh Kumar gets more heated,
05:35power, process and the Election Commission are now at the heart of the debate.
05:41The Supreme Court has spoken.
05:43Will the CEC now respond?
05:46With Anisha Mathur, Bureau Report, India Today.
