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Informist, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026

 

--Plea in SC seeks complaint, prosecution against poll panel chief Kumar 

--CONTEXT: Plea over violation of statutory duties by Kumar in roll revision 

 

NEW DELHI – After The Indian Express report of two election commissioners recording dissents with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's decisions taken on the special intensive revision of electoral rolls, a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court has sought a complaint and prosecution against Kumar under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, on violating statutory duties. The petitioner, Shailendra Mani Tripathi, has sought that all decisions and software modifications initiated under Kumar without full concurrence of the members of the Election Commission of India or those contrary to the majority opinion of the panel should be declared unconstitutional, ultra vires, and void ab initio. 

 

Tripathi has sought the constitution of an independent, high-powered judicial inquiry commission or a special investigation team headed by a retired judge of the top court, with independent cybersecurity experts from Indian Institute of Technology, to conduct an end-to-end technical, forensic, and administrative audit of the poll panel's databases on electoral rolls. The panel should investigate the institutional circumstances under which 130 million names were deleted across 30 states and Union territories under the special intensive revision, said Tripathi. He has sought direction to immediately include and restore the 97 eligible electors in the state of Goa, and all other similarly placed citizens who have been excluded from the final rolls due to technical or algorithmic omissions of the poll panel's software. 

 

The petitioner has sought a direction to quash the unauthorised modifications made to Form 6 on the poll panel portal requiring ancestry or last special intensive revision declarations, and requested for direction of the immediate restoration of statutory previous Form 6 as prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. It sought the court permit all eligible adults to register as voters on the basis of original statutory requirements. Tripathi prayed for quashing and dismissing all 1.6 million appeals filed in the name of the Election Commission of India before appellate tribunals in West Bengal challenging the inclusion of electors by judicial officers, on the grounds of complete lack of statutory sanction and administrative fraud. 

 

According to The Indian Express report, over a 10-month period from November 2025 to August 2026, the other two election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, formally recorded written dissents and objections on at least 14 separate occasions, including four times on a single day, against the decisions taken and executed in the name of the Election Commission of India, which the petitioner alleged were "unilateral, unauthorized, and illegal". These decisions include introducing a mandatory ancestral condition for first-time young voters without legislative authority or amendment of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, violating the mandatory rule of majority transacted under Section 18 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023 and other related decisions.

 

The act of Kumar deliberately manipulating the electoral roll bears no "reasonable nexus" or legal connection to his official duties; such an act falls squarely outside the ambit of official immunity and constitutes distinct, personal criminal liability, said Tripathi. From a constitutional standpoint, the Chief Election Commissioner enjoys no personal immunity from criminal prosecution, he said, adding that there is no explicit bar against police investigation or arrest against the officer. In such a scenario, divested of any statutory or constitutional immunity, the Chief Election Commissioner remains directly accountable under the law, subject to police investigation, evidence gathering, and regular trial proceedings as an ordinary accused, said the petitioner.

 

After The Indian Express report, the opposition has demanded the resignation of Kumar and has planned to move a motion in Parliament for his removal. Indian National Congress leader and leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, said "all elections" were being "rigged" in the country. "Our elections are fundamentally broken," he said, the "sacred belief" in the vote is "dying". "If tomorrow, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) sweeps elections, no one will believe it," he added.

 

India's viral youth movement, the Cockroach Janta Party, has demanded the resignation of Kumar, calling him the "biggest threat" to the country's democracy. The Cockroach Janta Party has said it will begin a nationwide protest from Oct. 2 if Kumar fails to resign by Saturday.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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