The Election Commission of India, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and the two Election Commissioners have filed a joint affidavit highlighting that any attempt to restrain the functioning of the CEC will be contrary to law.
Petitions basing itself on media reports should not be even maintainable in court. The nearly 250-page document filed in the top court late on Monday (October 26, 2026) said a CEC cannot be removed from office except in the manner and the grounds identical to ousting a Supreme Court judge.
The affidavit said a media report on the inner frictions and alleged unilateral or authoritarian functioning of the CEC was hardly evidence in court.
The affidavit, however, indirectly confirmed that Mr. “Decisions are first sent to one Election Commissioner and then to the other Election Commissioner and then finally to the CEC. Such approved decisions of the EC are duly noted in the files concerned of the EC and bear the signature of the Election Commissioners and the CEC. Sandhu and Mr. The order was passed without the knowledge or consensus of the two Election Commissioners.
Joshi had written to the Cabinet Secretary about the conduct of Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg, following a controversial July 28 order affecting levels of IT oversight over electoral rolls.
The affidavit, which shows the CEC to be on the same page as both Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, said the Commission had “neither released nor authorised the release of any internal note or file to any news agency”. Thereafter, the decision is notified and implemented by the EC Secretariat,” the affidavit said. “Important functions” were “directly under the Commission as a whole”. “Decisions taken in meetings of the EC or are noted in files bear the signatures of the Election Commissioners and the CEC,” the affidavit said. “On July 29, the two ECs had written separate letters to the Cabinet Secretary in relation to this order and the conduct of the officer,” the affidavit. It said that the July 28 order was “never implemented”. “The declaration form is one of the documents which is required to be submitted by any applicant along with Form 6 for inclusion in the electoral roll during the SIR exercise,” the affidavit said.
