Supreme Court to hear pleas seeking suspension of CEC Gyanesh Kumar on Oct 5

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday October 5 a batch of pleas seeking the suspension of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and challenging decisions allegedly taken without the concurrence of the other two Election Commissioners reported the PTIA bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana is scheduled to hear the pleas filed by Patna resident Rakesh Kumar Singh and advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi the news agency reportedThe petitions question whether the CEC can exercise powers that under the law belong to the Election Commission as a multimember bodyPleas challenge alleged unilateral decisionsAccording to the PTI Singhs petition has urged the Supreme Court to examine whether Kumar individually exercised powers that legally belong to the Election Commission as a wholeThe plea seeks an interim direction preventing Kumar from exercising the functions of CEC until the final hearing It also seeks directions on how the Commissions work should be conducted during such a periodThe petitioners have challenged various decisions guidelines and software changes allegedly introduced without the approval of Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek JoshiThe pleas come amid a controversy over the Election Commissions Special Intensive Revision SIR of electoral rollsThe petitions refer to reports that Sandhu and Joshi had raised objections on several occasions to decisions concerning the SIR exercise One report said the two commissioners had recorded objections at least 14 times over a 10month periodThe Election Commission has rejected the suggestion that its decisions were taken without proper approval It has said that differences of views and observations are a normal part of institutional deliberations and that its final orders have full legal sanction and follow established proceduresPlea raises questions over Form 6One of the main issues raised in the petition concerns changes to Form 6 which is used by citizens to register as votersThe petition alleges that requirements relating to ancestral details and links with the previous SIR were introduced through the poll panels software without the statutory procedure required to change the prescribed formThe petitioner claims that the other two Election Commissioners had objected to the changes and maintained that the prescribed form could not be altered without following the required legal processChallenges decisions linked to Goa and West BengalThe plea also raises concerns over the handling of electoral roll revisions in Goa and West BengalIt alleges that the software did not have a mechanism to restore 97 eligible voters in Goa despite directions for their verificationIn West Bengal the petitioner has alleged that more than 1610 lakh appeals were filed in the Election Commissions name against voters whose names had been restored by judicial officersThe plea claims that the other two Election Commissioners and the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer were not aware of or had not authorised these appealsAnother plea seeks criminal proceedingsTripathis petition filed through advocate Chand Qureshi alleges that the CECs actions violate the statutory requirement of collective decisionmakingIt has also sought initiation of criminal proceedings against the CEC and other officials for alleged breach of official dutyThe petition relies on the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act 2023 particularly provisions concerning decisionmaking by the Election Commission and the role of majority opinionSupreme Court hearing on MondayThe petitions have made the Union Law Ministry the Election Commission the CEC and the two Election Commissioners among others parties to the proceedingsThe Supreme Courts hearing on October 5 will consider the pleas and the legal issues raised regarding the functioning and decisionmaking process of the Election Commission The courts response to the petitioners allegations will be awaitedwith PTI inputs