Supreme Court to Review Election Commission Decisions Amid Controversy

Supreme Court to Hear Petition on Election Commission's Decisions

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a petition next week that questions the validity of decisions made by the Election Commission of India, which is headed by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

This issue was brought before a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, who presented the case, informed the bench that the legal framework requires decisions made by the multi-member Election Commission to be either unanimous or decided by majority.

He expressed concerns regarding the functioning of the Election Commission, stating, 'There are significant doubts about whether the decisions are indeed unanimous.'

This petition arises following a report from the Indian Express, which indicated that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi Sandhu had formally raised objections at least 14 times over the last ten months regarding decisions related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, claiming these were made without their input or consent.

In response, the Election Commission clarified that the correspondence from Sandhu and Joshi to the Cabinet Secretary was related to an officer on deputation, rather than issues concerning policy or IT divisions.