New Delhi: A public interest litigation has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking criminal prosecution of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged breaches of statutory duties during the controversial Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The petition, moved by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi through advocate Chand Qureshi, demands an inquiry by a judicial commission or a special investigation team into the purported deletion of 130 million voters from voter registries across the country during the revision drive.
The plea urges the apex court to declare all directives, policy guidelines, and software modifications initiated or executed under Kumar without the concurrence of the two other Election Commissioners as unconstitutional, ultra vires, and void ab initio. Under Section 18 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, institutional decisions must reflect full consensus or a majority determination. The petitioner argued that unilateral measures adopted in the name of the poll body bypassed mandatory statutory consensus and undermined democratic norms.
The petition further appeals to the court to direct competent authorities to register formal complaints and commence criminal prosecution under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which penalises deliberate breaches of official duty. In addition to the Chief Election Commissioner, the petition names Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Manish Garg and Director General of Information Technology Seema Khanna, urging rigorous scrutiny of their administrative conduct.
Citing official documentation, the petitioner submitted that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally registered written dissents and objections on at least 14 separate occasions between November 2025 and August 2026, including four formal objections recorded on a single day. These internal objections challenged centralising the voter database, altering software protocols without consultation, and modifying statutory Form 6, which individuals use to apply for enrolment on the electoral register.
The plea also raises serious concerns regarding the filing of over 1.6 million appeals before tribunals in West Bengal against voter inclusions, which were reportedly submitted under the Commission’s banner without proper statutory authority. The petitioner has asked the court to restore the original Form 6 as prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, reinstate decentralized digital access for local Electoral Registration Officers, and remove centralized administrative vetoes within the ECINet portal.
