New Delhi, 05 October (H.S.): The Supreme Court on Monday declined to pass a unilateral interim order seeking the suspension of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said that before considering allegations that several decisions relating to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) had been taken unilaterally, responses should first be sought from the Election Commission and other concerned parties. The Supreme Court issued notices to the Central government, the Election Commission and Gyanesh Kumar, seeking their responses.

Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that citizens’ voting rights were at risk and alleged that the Chief Election Commissioner was acting in a partisan manner. She said this affected 30 per cent of voters in Delhi and 25 per cent of voters in West Bengal. She further submitted that 1.6 million appeals were pending before the appellate tribunal and that these people had already been excluded from one electoral process, while another election was now approaching.

Menaka Guruswamy said the issue was not confined to any particular state and that the state concerned was being cited only as an example. She said the petition was drawing the court’s attention to recent elections and concerned the national functioning of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners, as well as the functioning of the Election Commission. She alleged that the conduct in question was being protected through what she described as an unconstitutional law. She questioned what punishment was prescribed for such alleged partisan conduct and said that she had grown up in an environment of free and fair elections but believed that such an environment no longer existed. She maintained all the demands raised in the petition and described the matter as a national issue.

During the hearing, Chief Justice Surya Kant clarified that the Supreme Court had not approved any changes to Form 6, which is used for inclusion of names in the electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision. He made the observation while hearing the petition seeking criminal proceedings against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The petition seeks the initiation of criminal proceedings against Gyanesh Kumar. It alleges that Kumar failed to discharge his constitutional duties in connection with the Special Intensive Revision. The petition further alleges that no consent was obtained from the other two Election Commissioners regarding decisions taken during the SIR or changes made to the software.

The petition seeks a declaration that all decisions taken by the Election Commission in connection with the Special Intensive Revision be declared illegal and that Form 6 be restored to its original format. It also seeks an investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the alleged deletion of the names of around 130 million voters during the SIR. The petition further seeks initiation of criminal proceedings against Gyanesh Kumar, as well as against Deputy Election Commissioner Manish Garg and Election Commission IT chief Seema Khanna.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar