Supreme Court Plea Seeks Prosecution of CEC Gyanesh Kumar Over SIR Decisions

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking criminal prosecution of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged statutory violations linked to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The plea, filed by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi through advocate Chand Qureshi, seeks a declaration that decisions, guidelines and software modifications allegedly undertaken without the concurrence of the other two Election Commissioners are unconstitutional and void.

It also seeks directions for complaints and prosecution under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, against Gyanesh Kumar and other officials named in the petition.

The petitioner has sought a judicial inquiry commission or Special Investigation Team to investigate the alleged deletion of around 13 crore names from draft electoral rolls during the SIR exercise, as well as an audit of relevant electoral-roll databases.

The plea follows reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections on multiple occasions over SIR-related decisions. The Election Commission has maintained that final decisions, including those concerning SIR, were unanimous and that internal notes form part of institutional deliberations.

Source: Anandabazar Patrika. Additional context: LiveLaw and The New Indian Express.