Not ruled on Form 6 yet, neither approved nor disapproved it: SC

CJI Kant disapproved of a lawyer’s argument of SC’s purported observation on Form 6. ‘Do not pick a word or sentence from an oral observation during a hearing and cite it as precedent,’ the bench said

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday said it is yet to test the validity of the new Form 6 used during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise for the inclusion of new voters in the poll roll and clarified that it has neither approved nor disapproved it.A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana made the oral observation when a lawyer said that the Election Commission has issued a press note purporting to convey that SC had upheld Form 6 while validating SIR in Bihar.“There is no adjudication of the new Form 6 yet. When the Bihar SIR judgement was delivered (by the SC), the new Form 6 was not in existence. The judgement does not say whether Form 6 is approved or disapproved by SC.

We will examine it in the other pending matters,” said Justice Bagchi, rebutting claims that SC had criticised the introduction of Form 6 at its last hearing on SIR-related issue.CJI also disapproved of the lawyer’s argument of SC’s purported observation earlier that Form 6 has not been approved. “Do not pick a word or sentence from an oral observation during a hearing and cite it as precedent,” it said, adding the new plea would be tagged with the pe­nding ones on SIR.