The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted 10 days to petitioners to file their rejoinders to the Election Commission’s affidavit defending the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant also asked the Election Commission to respond to a fresh plea by TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen alleging that changes were made to Form 6 during the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar without the top court’s approval.While hearing petitions seeking to halt the SIR and restrain Gyanesh Kumar from functioning as the CEC, the Bench, which also included Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana, took note of submissions of senior advocate and MP Maneka Guruswamy, representing Sen, that the EC wrongly claimed that the changes in Form 6 were approved by the top court. The poll panel had on Monday asserted that the SIR exercise was authorised by law and the relevant orders were approved unanimously by all three members of the commission—CEC Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.The Bench asked senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing lead petitioner Rakesh Kumar Singh, to file a rejoinder to the poll panel’s reply affidavit in 10 days.In the eye of the storm over alleged large-scale irregularities and deletion of 13 crore voters during the SIR of electoral rolls, the Election Commission had on Monday unanimously denied before the Supreme Court any wrongdoing in its decisions.Refuting the petitioners’ allegations, the poll panel submitted that all three orders concerning the SIR—dated June 24, 2025, October 27, 2025, and May 14, 2026—were unanimous and that it never released or authorised the release of any internal note or file to the media.In an affidavit filed in response to petitions filed by one Rakesh Kumar Singh seeking suspension of the SIR exercise pending final adjudication of the issue by the top court and restraining Gyanesh Kumar from functioning as CEC, the commission said the petition as not maintainable as it was solely based on news reports.The poll panel asserted that contrary to various claims, Form 6 has not been amended by it as it could only be amended by the Centre. However, it acknowledged that the manner in which the declaration was displayed on the online application platform could give the impression that Form 6 had been amended.To address the issue, from October 21, 2026, the online application process would be divided into two separate components: Form 6 and the SIR declaration, in line with the procedure followed for physical applications, it said.The declaration was introduced to facilitate the mapping of applicants with earlier electoral rolls and that the changes did not amount to an amendment of the statutory form, it clarified.The Supreme Court earlier said that it did not adjudicate upon the new Form 6 while hearing cases related to the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, which was upheld by it on May 27.