Supreme Court seeks Election Commission response to plea against chief Gyanesh Kumar after Express investigation

The petitioner has urged the court to declare SIR, and all actions, decisions, directions, and measures taken under it, invalid from the very beginning and without legal authority.

Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on petitions questioning the functioning of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, calling for an SIT probe against him and seeking to declare the nationwide SIR of electoral rolls illegal. A bench headed by CJI Surya Kant and also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana heard the matter today.

The petitions were filed days after The Indian Express reported that ECs Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders concerning the SIR of electoral rolls. The two commissioners said some of the decisions were issued without their knowledge or recommendation. The two ECs separately wrote to the country’s top bureaucrat, Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan, flagging concerns over the integrity of voter software. The ECI said the letters sent by Sandhu and Joshi to the Cabinet Secretary concerned an officer on deputation and were not related to policy or IT division matters.

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Pleas before court: One of the petitions by Patna resident Rakesh Kumar Singh referred to the alleged differences between CEC Kumar and Sandhu and Joshi and the objections raised by them. “Article 324(1) of the Constitution does not vest the superintendence, direction and control of elections in an individual Chief Election Commissioner. It vests those powers in a Commission,” said the plea. The petitioner urged the court to declare SIR, and all actions, decisions, directions, and measures taken under it, invalid from the very beginning and without legal authority. The petitioner argued that the SIR was undertaken without the necessary statutory or constitutional authority and without following the procedure required by law.

The other petition by Delhi-based lawyer Shailendra Mani Tripathi has sought a probe by an independent, high-powered judicial inquiry commission or an SIT headed by a retired judge of the top court. The petition refers to “unprecedented constitutional fractures and illegalities committed within the ECI under the CEC as exposed by documentary records published on September 23, 2026”. The plea said the alleged “act of… CEC Kumar… falls squarely outside the ambit of official immunity and constitutes distinct, personal criminal liability”.

Live Updates
Oct 5, 2026 12:58 PM IST
Breaking- Supreme Court issues notice to ECI, Gyanesh Kumar and other two ECs

Breaking- Supreme Court issues notice to ECI, CEC Gyanesh Kumar and other two ECs

Oct 5, 2026 12:54 PM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing underway

Justice Bagchi: We expect them to respond in a clear, transparent manner.

CJI (order): Issue notice.

Oct 5, 2026 12:54 PM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing underway

Justice Bagchi: We have to give notice.

Vikas Singh: I appreciate that, but let them follow the statutory scheme in the meantime. That's all that I'm requesting.

Justice Bagchi: After the notice being given, if they come up and the records show that A, B, C decision was neither by majority nor by unanimity, we will injunct those decisions. We will say these decisions are ultra vires.

Vikas Singh: I'm sorry. I'm not able to make myself clear. This is not a decision in the sense of granting some pension to somebody. This is a decision with regard to the electoral roll. Now, if the electoral roll itself is vitiated by virtue of somebody taking a unanimous, singular decision, that can't be undone.

Justice Bagchi (asks Singh): Can we ex-parte come to a decision that all the decisions were unilateral?

Oct 5, 2026 12:52 PM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing underway

CJI: We would like to have their response...We will see that what are those orders....We are calling upon respondents 5 to 8 also. They will respond directly to us.

Vikas Singh: Let everybody respond but in the meantime let them not take any decision which is without majority.

CJI: There is a mandatory law, and we will expect that they will follow the law. If ultimately we find that there are instances where it has not been followed, you know the power.

Vikas Singh: What all your Lordship will undo. Your Lordships can't undo an election which has already been held. Your Lordships can't undo a government which has been installed by virtue of this illegal process. What all will your Lordships undo?

Oct 5, 2026 12:51 PM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing underway

Vikas Singh: There is a press release by ECI which has not denied the report...The press release is in the most vaguest of language.

CJI: News report may be 100% correct, it may be partially correct; it may be partially incorrect. We cannot really pass an order today on that basis, but we'll definitely like to have their response and then whatever corrective requirements are there, we will issue them.

Oct 5, 2026 12:49 PM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing underway

Vikas Singh seeks interim order to suspend CEC Gyanesh Kumar, "This country will burn".

CJI: We can always annul any decision.

Vikas Singh: Your Lordships can't annul an election that has already happened. That your Lordship will not do, will never do.

Oct 5, 2026 12:48 PM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing underway

CJI: Let us first have an authenticated information

Oct 5, 2026 12:47 PM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing underway

Vikas Singh (refers to a provision in the Act): A prime minister doesn't have this protection....I am wanting an interim order to suspend CEC immediately. I'll tell your Lordship why. Because what is happening today, there are elections happening. It'll have to be done or divest him of the authority to act as CEC.

Justice Bagchi: Who is going to conduct the elections?

Vikas Singh: The two CECs will do it...In the interim, restore the Barnawal position and your Lordship will be the member of the selection committee...We are dealing with a very grave situation today. A grave situation which can undermine the very basis of our democracy. Today, our democracy is vibrant and known all over the world because of the way we are able to conduct our elections. Now, this election has been conducted for 76 years, with this Election Commission having a certain amount of respect, as far as his personal involvement in the electoral process has never been questioned. Please appreciate, my Lord. His one decision here or one decision there may be questioned. But today, we are having a situation where the very CEC, as a constitutional body, is acting in a manner which is completely contrary to the statute under which he's appointed.

Oct 5, 2026 12:43 PM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing begins

Vikas Singh: This section (16) was not there in the original act, and this makes the Election Commission even more powerful than any other constitutional functionary in the country today.

"Protection of Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners, notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force. No court shall entertain or continue any civil or criminal proceeding against any person who is or was a Chief Election Commissioner or an Election Commissioner for any act, thing, or word committed, done, or spoken by him when in the course of acting or purporting to act in the discharge of his official duty or function."

This is something that is not there in the earlier Act that is brought in.

Oct 5, 2026 12:42 PM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing begins

Vikas Singh: Your lordship will have to take some interim measures here otherwise the credibility of the electoral process is undermined where every citizen of the country is feeling unsafe.

Oct 5, 2026 12:41 PM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing begins

Singh refers to Sections 10(2) and 10(3) of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023.

Vikas Singh: So what had happened, this Act was interpreted by Barnwal, by the Supreme Court, which said that multi-member has to be by a collegium. It can't be where the Chief Justice of India has to be a party, which is now superseded by the new Act which has been brought in, which is separately challenged, where there is a split verdict, and your Lordships have to constitute a constitution bench.

Oct 5, 2026 12:40 PM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing begins

Vikas Singh: Kindly have a look at the Act which was there initially and what was amended in 2023..I'll show the distinction which has been made in the 2023 Act and how, with the 2023 Act, the authority of the Election Commissioner has been enlarged by making him immune from criminal (prosecution). In this original act, if your Lordship will see Section 10- The Election Commission may, by unanimous decision, regulate the procedure for transaction of its business as also allocation of its business amongst Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioner. So this has to be unanimous. That is even there in the 2018 Act.

Oct 5, 2026 12:39 PM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing begins

Court takes up the matter.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh appears for the petitioner.

Oct 5, 2026 11:25 AM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Hearing shortly

The bench has assembled. The matter will be taken up in some time. A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana will hear the matter.

Oct 5, 2026 10:39 AM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Plea before court

Another petition filed by Rakesh Kumar Singh referred to alleged differences between CEC Kumar and Sandhu and Joshi, and the objections they raised. “Article 324(1) of the Constitution does not vest the superintendence, direction and control of elections in an individual Chief Election Commissioner. It vests those powers in a Commission,” said the plea. Singh pointed out that Article 324(2) provides that the Election Commission comprises the Chief Election Commissioner and such number of other Election Commissioners as the President may determine from time to time. Article 324(3) further stipulates that, when other Election Commissioners are appointed, the Chief Election Commissioner shall serve as the Commission’s Chairman.

He said his grievance is not that Kumar exercised the CEC’s powers improperly, “but that he has… held out as entitled to exercise a power, the collective decision-making authority of the Commission under Article 324 and Section 18 of the 2023 Act [Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act], to which Article 324(3) gives him no individual title, he being Chairman of the Commission and not the Commission itself.”

Oct 5, 2026 10:27 AM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Plea before court

One of the petitions is filed by Delhi-based lawyer Shailendra Mani Tripathi, who has sought a probe by an independent, high-powered judicial inquiry commission or a special investigation team headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court.

Tripathi has urged the court to issue appropriate directions to the competent statutory 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 and Director General (Information Technology) Seema Khanna and all other officers found guilty of deliberate breach of official duty.

The petition refers to “unprecedented constitutional fractures and illegalities committed within the Election Commission of India under Chief Election Commissioner Shri Gyanesh Kumar as exposed by documentary records published on September 23, 2026”.

Oct 5, 2026 10:19 AM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: What Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said

Amid the row over the SIR of electoral rolls against which petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, a judge of the top court, said on Sunday that any process that leads to wholesale disenfranchisement of Indian citizens, making them citizens without voting rights, would be violative of the Constitution. No amount of whataboutery can justify it, he said.

Justice Bhuyan said detaching an Indian citizen from the right to vote would be akin to “taking out the soul from the body.” Speaking at the valedictory ceremony of Justice Bodh Raj Sawhney Memorial Moot Court competition at Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad, he said, “If any process results in disenfranchising millions and millions of Indian citizens, making them second-class citizens in their own country, in the sense of being citizens without voting rights, such a process is intrinsically arbitrary. No amount of whataboutery can justify it.”

Oct 5, 2026 10:14 AM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: What the petition calls for

The plea urges the court to issue a quo warranto writ “calling upon” Kumar “to show under what authority he has acted, and continues to act, as though entitled individually to exercise the collective decision-making power vested by Article 324 of the Constitution in the Election Commission as a body, notwithstanding that Article 324(3) constitutes him only Chairman of the Commission and vests in him no individual title to the Commission’s collective authority”.

The petitioner has also asked the court to declare the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), and all actions, decisions, directions, and measures taken under it, invalid from the very beginning and without legal authority. The petitioner argued that the SIR was undertaken without the necessary statutory or constitutional authority and without following the procedure required by law.

Oct 5, 2026 10:10 AM IST
Supreme Court Hears Plea on CEC Gyanesh Kumar Live Updates: Plea against CEC

Last week, the Supreme Court had agreed to hear a plea questioning the functioning of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and seeking to declare the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls illegal. The petition came days after The Indian Express had reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders concerning the SIR of electoral rolls. The two commissioners said some of the decisions were taken without their knowledge or recommendation.

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