SC refuses to suspend CEC Gyanesh Kumar, seeks response to election body decision | Today’s news
Mumbai: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to immediately restrain Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar while issuing a notice on a petition challenging decisions taken by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and challenging the provisions of the law governing the Election Commission.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohan said it would examine the records and seek ECI’s reply before considering any interim directions.
Appearing for petitioner Rakesh Singh, senior counsel Vikas Singh sought an immediate order to prevent Kumar from functioning as CEC, arguing that his continuation in office could affect the credibility of the election process. “Some kind of interim order will be required, otherwise this will continue… otherwise this country will burn,” Singh said.
The court said it would examine whether the statutory regime was followed and asked the ECI to respond. The court said it will examine the material submitted before any interim order can be passed.
Senior lawyer Menaka Guruswamy, who appeared before the court in a related plea, said the voting rights of citizens were at risk and alleged that the CEC was biased. The petition was filed by Shailendra Mani Tripathi seeking to declare all the decisions taken by Gyanesh Kumar without the consent of the majority of the Election Commissioners as illegal and void.
Compounding the matter, the court issued a notice in a petition seeking ECI’s response to the allegation that several Special Intensive Review (SIR)-related decisions were taken unilaterally by the CEC.
The case will be heard next week. A detailed copy of the order is pending.
Emailed queries to ECI seeking answers had not been answered as of press time.
Complaint form 6
Notably, the bench said that the revised Form 6, which is used for inclusion of names in the electoral roll during the Special Intensive Review (SIR) process, has not been approved by the Supreme Court.
ECI however claimed that the new declaration that is linked to online filing of Form 6 in the ongoing SIR process in some states has been cleared by the apex court.
“We have not approved any modified Form 6. To be clear. When the record is produced, we would like to see who modified them,” the bench observed.
The petitions were filed in the Supreme Court after The Indian Express reported that the ECI took 14 important decisions and only the CEC approved them, while two other Election Commissioners objected.
