Petition seeks early hearing
Mahi Shrivastava, Bhopal: The Supreme Court has agreed to list a petition next week challenging the alleged unilateral exercise of authority by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The plea also seeks an interim or temporary order barring him from carrying out CEC duties until the case is ultimately settled.
The matter was mentioned before Chief Justice of India Surya Kant by senior advocate Vikas Singh, along with advocates Sudeep Chandra and Mudit Gupta, on behalf of petitioner Rakesh Kumar Singh. Although the Court has consented to review the petition early, it has not suspended Kumar or passed any order against him so far.
Dispute over collective decision-making
The petition argues that election-related powers belong to the Election Commission of India as a constitutional body, and not to the CEC acting alone. It relies on Article 324 of the Constitution and refers to the Supreme Court’s 1995 judgment in the T.N. Seshan case, which emphasised that the other Election Commissioners must have a meaningful role in decision-making.
According to the plea, the ECI currently comprises CEC Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. It claims that the Commission is expected to work through collective decisions—preferably unanimously, and through a majority where differences arise.
The petitioner has also relied on Section 18 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023. The provision deals with the Commission’s procedure and distribution of work, stating that decisions should, as far as possible, be unanimous. If the members disagree, the majority view is to prevail.
Records and disputed decisions
The plea refers to reports of around 14 objections allegedly raised by the two Election Commissioners between October 2025 and August 2026. These reportedly relate to changes in Form 6, access and control of electoral-roll databases, and appeals filed in West Bengal in connection with the Special Intensive Revision process.
The petitioner has asked the Court to direct the preservation and production of the ECI’s records, including meeting minutes, file notes, approval documents, correspondence, work-allocation orders, server logs and database-change histories. The plea also mentions reports of approximately 16.10 lakh appeals filed in the name of the ECI before West Bengal appellate tribunals and seeks details of who authorised them.
The petition seeks a declaration that no order, communication, appeal or other action can be presented as an act of the ECI unless it is supported by a unanimous or majority decision, as required by law. It also seeks a writ of quo warranto, asking the CEC to show the legal authority under which he allegedly exercised powers belonging to the Commission as a whole.
However, the allegations have not been judicially established. The petitioner itself has said that the Court must first examine the original records before deciding whether the disputed actions were actually taken without proper authorisation.