India Supreme Court to hear PIL seeking suspension of CEC Gyanesh Kumar
The petition questions whether decisions were taken by the Election Commission without the approval of its two other commissioners
India's Supreme Court today (29 September) agreed to hear next week a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the suspension of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and challenging the manner in which the Election Commission led by him allegedly took decisions without the approval of its two other commissioners.
The matter was mentioned before a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, who mentioned the matter, told the bench that under the statutory scheme, decisions of the multi-member Election Commission have to be unanimous or taken by majority.
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"The purpose of having a multi-member Commission was that and the statute says so, that it has to be a decision unanimously or by majority. Now, the way the Election Commission has functioned, there is serious doubt about whether there was a decision on the basis that it is a Commission's decision. So it is a serious issue," Singh told the court.
Citing media reports, the PIL claims that the two Election Commissioners recorded at least 14 objections between October 2025 and August 2026 over steps they considered to have been taken without the Commission's approval.
The Indian Express has also reported that the two commissioners formally objected at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions taken without their knowledge.
Opposition parties are demanding Kumar's resignation over allegations of voter-list manipulation during the verification of the country's nearly one billion voters. Kumar, a former bureaucrat, took over as India's Chief Election Commissioner in February 2025.
Kumar has denied the allegations.
Criticism intensified last week after The Indian Express reported that his two deputies had raised at least 14 formal objections over 10 months to decisions related to voter rolls, registration procedures and the poll body's digital systems.
The petition also challenges the alleged unilateral exercise of powers by the CEC and seeks scrutiny of the Election Commission's decision-making process.
India held its last national election in 2024, when nearly 650 million people voted and the Narendra Modi government returned to power, although the BJP did not secure a majority on its own.
