Supreme Court adjourns pleas against ECI functioning, CEC Gyanesh Kumar

The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned hearing in a batch of petitions challenging the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI), giving petitioners 10 days to file a rejoinder to a counter-affidavit the poll body filed a day earlier.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana was hearing pleas against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, which allege that several ECI decisions — including those on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls — were taken without the concurrence of the other two election commissioners.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and INDIA bloc leaders, asked the court to direct that file notings and internal communications be preserved, saying this was key to determining whether the decisions were unanimous. "We know everything, we will examine," the CJI said in response.

Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for Trinamool Congress MP Dola Sen, told the bench that the ECI's affidavit corroborated the petitioners' case, and alleged the poll body had tampered with Form 6 and wrongly claimed the Supreme Court had approved it. Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the ECI, rejected this as "rhetoric".

The bench adjourned the matter to November 17 after senior advocate Vikas Singh, for lead petitioner Rakesh Singh, sought time to file a rejoinder.

The petitions stem from a report by The Indian Express that at least 14 decisions tied to the SIR exercise were taken in the ECI's name despite objections recorded by election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. In its counter-affidavit, the ECI has denied unilateral decision-making, saying all SIR-related decisions were taken unanimously, and that Form 6 was not amended.

Besides Rakesh Singh, the petitioners include advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi, Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders, the Human Justice Organization, Priya Mishra, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, former MP Digvijay Singh and Sen. They have questioned whether the ECI's functioning meets constitutional requirements under Article 324 and the 2023 law governing the appointment and conduct of election commissioners.

The court had first issued notice on October 5, declining to pass an interim order suspending Gyanesh Kumar, while observing it would examine the law governing the commission's decision-making and asking who would conduct elections if the CEC were restrained from functioning.