A Supreme Court advocate on Thursday (September 24, 2026) sought statutory consent of the Attorney General of India to initiate criminal contempt action against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar following a media report revealing a “complete breakdown of multi-member consensus within the Election Commission of India (EC)”.
He submitted that the alleged actions/omissions by Mr. Kumar violated Supreme Court precedents, including T.N. Seshan versus Union of India and Anoop Baranwal versus Union of India, which mandate that the EC must function through institutional consensus. The prior consent of the Attorney General of India, a Constitutional authority, is mandatory before filing a contempt petition in the Supreme Court.
“Bypassing fellow Commissioners to secretly issue public dictates under the banner of ‘full Commission’ constitutes willful defiance of the law declared by the Supreme Court under Article 141,” the advocate said.
