Rahul Gandhi and other petitioners told the SC that the EC appeared to accept Form 6 charges, seeking preservation of SIR records, despite the EC denying all allegations.

NEW DELHI: Some of the petitioners, including Rahul Gandhi and INDIA bloc netas, on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the Election Commission “appeared to have accepted the charges relating to Form 6” and demanded preservation of files and file notings relating to the SIR exercise.Senior advocates A M Singhvi and Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for petitioners who have questioned the commission’s functioning and the CEC’s alleged unilateral decision to conduct SIR of electoral rolls, made the assertions despite EC emphatically denying all allegations and filing an affidavit before SC stating that SIR orders were passed unanimously by the CEC and the two ECs.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for one of the petitioners, refrained from making any claim and requested SC for a week’s time to respond to EC’s affidavit filed Monday. However, Guruswamy, also a RS MP representing TMC, said EC’s affidavit “accepted charges about tampering of Form 6” and was silent about internal differences among the three-member EC, which the commission had said was part of deliberations and the post-discussion decisions were unanimous.SG Tushar Mehta, appearing for Union govt, said the court would examine EC’s affidavit and petitioners should not make the court a platform for political rhetoric. “They must place evidence before court to enable adjudication of their claims,” Mehta said.Bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana posted the matter for hearing on Nov 17 and said, “We are aware of everything and we will examine everything from the records.”