New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Monday refused to pass any interim order to suspend Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over allegations that he took decisions unilaterally without the consensus of the two other Election Commissioners. The top court was hearing a petition, filed by Patna resident Rakesh Kumar Singh, challenging the functioning of the Election Commission under the CEC’s leadership.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymala Bagchi and V Mohana said it wanted to examine whether the decisions were taken solely by Gyanesh Kumar or were approved unanimously or by a majority of the poll body. When the record is produced, we want to see who has modified the Form 6. If there is no consensus, the decision should be by a majority; otherwise, the decision could be set aside. You are basing your arguments solely on a newspaper report, the CJI said.
In response, the CJI said, The report might be accurate or inaccurate, but we cannot pass an order based on that. We must await their response. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court did not set a specific deadline for the ECI to respond, despite advocate Vikas Singh seeking a response within a week and arguing that the court needed to intervene, saying otherwise the country will burn. The CJI said that if the court eventually found flaws in the appointment process, it could always cancel the results.
The controversy came to light after an Indian Express report last month claimed that Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over 10 months to orders and directions related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, saying they were issued without their knowledge or recommendation. The SIR exercise to weed out ineligible voters, which began in June last year, has led to over 13 crore names being deleted from the draft voter rolls in 30 states and Union Territories so far.
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