India: Top court to hear petitions against CEC Gyanesh Kumar

The Supreme Court on Monday is scheduled to hear a batch of pleas seeking the suspension of Election Commission of India chief Gyanesh Kumar over decisions related to the country’s controversial voter roll revisionsallegedly taken unilaterally, India media reported.

Critics say a nationwide voter-verification exercise —  called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) —  which began last year, has disenfranchised millions of eligible voters by striking their names from electoral rolls

Kumar has been under intense public scrutiny after the Indian Express daily reported that two of his fellow election commissioners raised at least 14 formal objections over 10 months regarding voter registrations, deletions and restorations, as well as control of electoral roll data, but those concerns were not taken into consideration.

Kumar heads the three-member commission, which has overseen the voter roll revisions.

The Election Commission of India rejects allegations of wrongdoing and says the process removes deceased, relocated and duplicate voters and also prevents the inclusion of “foreign illegal immigrants.”

Opposition parties and critics allege that the changes to voter lists benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a charge the party denies.

Kumar is yet to make a comment on the allegations against him.

On Monday,  a three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, is expected to hear petitions over the decisions taken by Kumar allegedly without the approval of the two election commissioners.

One of the petitions is seeking a declaration that the chief election commissioner cannot take decisions for the ECI without the concurrence of the other two Election Commissioners, legal news website LiveLaw reported.

The other seeks a revocation of the 14 reported decisions allegedly taken unilaterally, along with the constitution of an independent judicial inquiry commission or  a special investigation team headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court to probe the allegations against Kumar.

The hearing comes afterthousands of protesters and opposition supporters rallied in Delhi and Mumbai over the weekend to demand Kumar’s resignation.