Supreme Court to hear plea challenging CEC’s alleged unilateral decisions

India’s Supreme Court will list next week a petition challenging allegations that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar exercised the authority of the Election Commission unilaterally. The matter was mentioned before Chief Justice Surya Kant by senior advocate Vikas Singh and advocate Mudit Gupta for petitioner Rakesh Kumar Singh. The petition seeks an early hearing and asks the court to direct that Kumar not exercise the functions of Chief Election Commissioner while the case is pending.

The petition argues that election powers belong to the Election Commission as a body rather than to one individual. It says Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi must participate in decisions and that the CEC’s view cannot automatically be treated as final. The plea cites Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 18 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023.

According to the petition, the law requires the commission’s business to be handled as far as possible unanimously, with differences decided by majority. It alleges that Kumar acted or communicated as though he were the Election Commission itself, rather than its chairperson. The petition asks the court to examine whether he had authority to issue orders without a unanimous or majority decision by the commission.

The petitioner has also sought preservation of physical and electronic records connected with the allegations, including minutes, files, approval records, work-allocation orders and IT logs. The requested records relate to the functioning of the commission, electoral databases, Form-6, a Special Intensive Revision and appeals before West Bengal tribunals. The petition further seeks an order preventing substantive changes to Form-6 and ensuring that eligible citizens are not denied electoral-roll inclusion solely for failing to provide information in a disputed field.

The court has not yet ruled on the allegations.