Plea In SC Seeking Action Against CEC Gyanesh Kumar
SIT probe into deletion of voters during SIR
Synopsis
A plea has been moved in the Supreme Court seeking action against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged violations of statutory duties connected to the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Who Filed the Petition?
The petition was filed by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi, through advocate Chand Qureshi. The plea states that it reveals unprecedented constitutional fractures and illegalities committed within the Election Commission (ECI) of India under CEC Gyanesh Kumar, as exposed by documentary records published on September 23, 2026.
"These official files reveal that over 10 months (November 2025 - August 2026), the other two Election Commissioners, Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr Vivek Joshi, formally recorded written dissents and objections on at least 14 separate occasions (including four times on a single day) against unilateral, unauthorised, and illegal decisions taken and executed in the name of the Commission," it contended.
"Centralisation and Usurpation of Statutory Powers: Depriving decentralised Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) of their statutory authority under Section 13B, 22, and 23 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and centralising electoral roll management under the Director General of IT (DG-IT) in Delhi," the plea said.
What Did the Petitioner Seek?
It sought a direction declaring all decisions, guidelines, directives, and software modifications initiated, approved, or implemented under Gyanesh Kumar without full commission concurrence or contrary to the majority opinion of the ECI (under Section 18 of the CEC and Other ECs Act, 2023) as unconstitutional, ultra vires, and void ab initio.
The petitioner has sought directions to the competent authority to register complaints and initiate prosecution under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 against Gyanesh Kumar, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg, Director General (IT) Seema Khanna and other officials found responsible for an alleged breach of official duty.
The plea seeks the constitution of an independent, high-powered judicial inquiry commission / Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a retired judge of the top court, with independent cybersecurity/IT experts from IITs, to: Conduct an end-to-end technical, forensic, and administrative audit of ECINet and ERONet databases.
The Plea Further Argues
"Investigate the institutional circumstances under which 13 crore names were deleted across 30 States/UTs under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR); Identify individual culpability for the unauthorised filing of 16.10 lakh appeals and work-allocation subversions," it added.
The plea seeks to quash the unauthorised modifications made to Form 6 on the ECINet/ERONet portal requiring ancestry/last-SIR declarations, and also a direction regarding immediate restoration of statutory Form 6 as prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and permit all eligible adults to register as voters based on original statutory requirements.
The plea argued that deliberately denying software rollbacks in Goa to disenfranchise 97 verified citizens, forging/authorizing 16.10 lakh phantom appeals in West Bengal, and illegally modifying Form 6 constitute direct, cognizable breaches of official duty under Section 32, and demanded immediate prosecution of the concerned public functionaries.