SC declines interim order on plea for CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s suspension, seeks EC response
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The Supreme Court on Monday refused to pass an interim order on petitions seeking the suspension of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar for allegedly taking unilateral decisions regarding the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, reported Live Law.
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The court said it would first seek responses from the Election Commission and other respondents.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notices to Kumar, the poll panel, the Union government, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi and Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg.
Petitions were filed before the court after The Indian Express reported on September 23 that Sandhu and Joshi had formally objected 14 times in 10 months to decisions by the poll panel related to the special intensive revision, saying some had been taken without their knowledge.
Their objections were reportedly related to the changes to Form 6, appeals against the inclusion of voters in West Bengal and the handling of voter data in Goa, among other matters. Form 6 is used to register new voters.
In one written objection, Sandhu was quoted as having stated that the poll body had acted against the advice of both commissioners and described the action as “unauthorised and illegal”.
The two election commissioners had also raised concerns over access to the...