Supreme Court to hear PIL on Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's functioning next week

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear next week a public interest litigation questioning the functioning of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The petition asks whether the approval of two Election Commissioners was taken when decisions were made in the Election Commission, and how the multi-member structure of the Commission actually works in practice.

The matter was mentioned on Tuesday before a Bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant. Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana are also on the Bench. Senior advocate Vikas Singh mentioned the petition before the court. The Chief Justice then said, "We will list it next week."

The PIL has been filed by Rakesh Kumar Singh of Patna. The petition claims that the powers of the Election Commission are not the personal powers of the Chief Election Commissioner alone, and that the Commission is expected to exercise them collectively.

According to the petition, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded objections to various decisions at least 14 times between October 2025 and August 2026. The petition says some of these objections related to decisions connected with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The petition also refers to changes in Form-6, the use of the ERONet/ECINet databases linked to electoral rolls, the allocation of IT work, and an appeal in West Bengal.

The petitioner has asked the court to call for the agendas and minutes of the Commission's meetings, file notings, approval documents, records related to the IT system and other primary records. The petitioner wants the court to examine from the documents how decisions were actually taken in the Commission.

The allegations are for now only claims made in the petition. The petition itself does not conclude that they have been conclusively proved. The Election Commission has said earlier that differing views between two commissioners are a normal part of deliberation in any institution. It has also stated that the Commission's orders are in accordance with the legal process. All eyes are now on what stand the Supreme Court takes on the petition next week.