The Supreme Court issued a notice to the Election Commission and the Centre on Monday, requesting responses within a week to a petition that challenges the way a poll panel led by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar made decisions allegedly without the approval of two other Election Commissioners.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana reviewed submissions from senior advocate Vikas Singh and issued the notice. The bench emphasized that the Election Commission’s decisions must be made either unanimously or by majority, and it presumed that this standard applied to the panel’s actions.
The petition, filed by Patna resident Rakesh Kumar Singh, asks the Court to determine whether the CEC has been exercising powers that belong to the Commission as a whole. If found to be unauthorized, the petition seeks to declare those actions invalid and to take appropriate legal measures. It also directs that the CEC refrain from exercising his functions pending the final hearing, that the Commission’s business be conducted by the unanimous decision of Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, and that any vacancy be filled through a Committee that includes the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India.
Earlier reports by the Indian Express on September 25 noted that Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi had formally objected at least fourteen times over the past ten months to decisions on the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, claiming those orders were issued without their knowledge or recommendation. The Election Commission has responded that differing views are normal in deliberations and that all its orders are fully sanctioned and follow established statutory procedures.
