SIR row: Supreme Court plea seeks prosecution of CEC Gyanesh Kumar

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking criminal prosecution of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. FILE PIC

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking criminal prosecution of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the alleged violations of statutory duties in connection with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, news agency PTI reported.

The plea, filed by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi through advocate Chand Qureshi, seeks to declare unconstitutional and void the decisions, guidelines and software modifications allegedly undertaken by Kumar without the concurrence of the two other Election Commissioners.

It also seeks a declaration that all such decisions relating to the SIR are illegal and calls for restoration of the original Form 6.

The petition further seeks an inquiry by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the alleged deletion of around 13 crore voters from electoral rolls during the revision exercise.

The petitioner has sought criminal prosecution of Kumar, Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg and Seema Khanna, IT head of the Election Commission (EC), alleging violation of their statutory duties under the Representation of the People Act.

Plea cites report of differences among Election Commissioners

The petition was filed days after a newspaper report said Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections on at least 14 occasions over decisions and orders concerning the SIR.

According to the report, the objections related to decisions allegedly taken without their knowledge or against their recommendations. The issues included changes to Form 6 and the management of electoral-roll data.

Referring to the report, the petition said the three-member EC had witnessed repeated differences over decisions concerning the SIR.

The report said Sandhu and Joshi had raised objections on issues including changes to Form 6, deletion and restoration of names from electoral rolls and the handling and centralisation of electoral-roll data.

It said the objections were recorded on at least 14 occasions, including four times on a single day.

EC says SIR decisions were unanimous

The EC, however, has said that the decisions taken during the past year were unanimous, according to a subsequent report by the newspaper.

The plea comes amid continued legal and political scrutiny of the SIR exercise, which, according to news report, has resulted in more than 13 crore names being removed from draft rolls across 30 states and Union Territories.

(With PTI inputs)