The Supreme Court on Monday (October 5) refused to pass an interim order on a plea seeking the suspension of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and issued notices to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Kumar and the two other Election Commissioners.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant was hearing three petitions challenging decisions allegedly taken unilaterally by the CEC on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, without consensus from the two other Election Commissioners.
What happened in the court?
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the petitioners Shailendra Mani Tripathi, Rakesh Kumar Singh and Sudhakar Singh, argued that the Election Commission is a multi-member body and decisions must be taken either unanimously or by majority.Singh sought an interim order suspending the CEC and urged the court to direct that decisions be taken unanimously, or at least by majority, while the matter remains pending.
The CJI, however, pointed out that the allegations were based on news reports. "It is possible that it is completely correct or partially correct," the court observed.
Singh submitted that the Election Commission had not denied the reports through a press release.
The court said there was already a law governing the functioning of the poll panel and expressed hope that it was being followed and would continue to be followed.
"We are issuing notice on the petition," the bench said, directing the ECI and the three Election Commissioners to respond.
The court also declined to pass any immediate order, saying that 10 days would not make a significant difference and that if anything was found to have been done incorrectly, it could later be set aside.
"This petition is based on a news report which could be 100 per cent correct, partially correct or incorrect. We cannot pass an order on the basis of a news report," the court observed.
Singh also sought directions to preserve the records related to the decisions under challenge, but the court did not pass any order on the request.
The matter will be heard again next week.
