Supreme Court to examine all aspects of CEC Gyanesh Kumar's decisions on SIR, says CJI

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has taken a stern view of the functioning and decisions of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Opposition parties, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, have filed petitions claiming that Kumar took several decisions entirely on his own. The petitions were heard on Tuesday.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Surya Kant said clearly that the entire matter, and the process by which decisions were taken, would be examined. Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana were also on the Bench. The petitions challenging the working of the Election Commission were placed before the three-judge Bench.

The petitions allege that several important decisions linked to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls were taken without the consent of the other two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. According to the petitioners, these decisions were made unilaterally by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar alone. Rahul Gandhi and other leaders of the INDIA bloc have questioned the way the Election Commission functions.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and the INDIA bloc leaders, asked the court to direct that the Commission's internal file notings and correspondence be preserved. He said it was necessary to keep these records safe in order to determine whether the decisions were taken with everyone's consent or unilaterally. The Chief Justice responded: "We have all the information. We will examine every aspect."

The Election Commission, for its part, has said in its affidavit that the decisions related to the Special Intensive Revision were taken unanimously. This is the central issue in the dispute: whether these decisions were discussed among all members of the Commission, and whether they were taken unanimously.

The next hearing in the case will be held after the Diwali holidays. The court has given the petitioners two weeks to file their reply to the Election Commission's affidavit. The next hearing has been fixed for November 17.