Did not clear Form 6 change… can annul unilateral decisions: Supreme Court sends notice to Election Commission

The Supreme Court issued a notice to the Centre and the Election Commission of India (ECI) in response to a petition accusing Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of acting unilaterally and violating the law governing his terms of office. The three-judge bench, presided over by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, directed the notice towards Kumar, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg, and ECI Director General (Information Technology) Seema Khanna.

The petition, filed by Rakesh Kumar Singh, was based on findings from an investigation by The Indian Express, which revealed that Sandhu and Joshi had objected on record 14 times in 10 months to steps taken by the Commission under the Chief Election Commissioner — ranging from keeping them in the dark to adding new voters and deleting names.

The court urged the Election Commission to provide the "complete original and primary records" related to the matter and declared the ongoing exercise illegal. While the bench declined to pass any interim order to suspend CEC Kumar or direct that the poll body should take decisions unanimously, it emphasized that any decision taken without unanimity would be annulled.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Indian Express's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.