Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear next week a petition which raised doubts over the decisions taken by the Election Commission of India led by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The matter was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, news agency PTI reported. The ECI, however, has maintained that it took all decisions unanimously. This comes against the backdrop of a controversy following the report that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders of the Election Commission, including on additions, deletion and restoration of voters and changes to the voter registration process.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, who mentioned the matter, told the bench that as per the statutory scheme, decisions of the multi-member Election Commission have to be unanimous or by majority. “The way the Election Commission is functioning, there is serious doubt over whether the decisions are unanimous,” he submitted.
