New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday accepted a fresh appeal next week to contest the running of the Election Commission of India (ECI) by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The plea was read in the presence of the bench presided by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, who had set a target of the next week for the plea to be put before him.
Rakesh Kumar Singh in the petition has questioned whether the CEC can exercise the powers which are vested in the Commission in general. It is based on Article 324 of the Constitution which vests the power of superintendence, direction and control over elections upon “Commission” and not the Chief Election Commissioner.
Representing the petitioner, senior advocate Vikas Singh pointed out that the Commission comprises of more than one member. His statutory job, he said, is to run its business unanimously as far as possible, disagreements are resolved by majority vote.
The petition mentions that, in spite of the objection by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, around 14 decisions were taken at the Commission’s head on behalf of the Commission during this period (from October 2025 to August 2026). Many of these are rumored to be associated with a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral lists.
The petitioner demands a writ of quo warranto from Kumar, which he would have to satisfy that he had the lawful authority to act on the issues, the which issue requires decision of the full Commission. He also seeks to ban Kumar from acting as the CEC and invalidate the SIR and related directions if they are not issued based on a valid resolution by the entire Commission. The plea also gives rise to doubts regarding the access to the electoral-roll database of the ECI, and references the Electoral Commission Act, 2023.
The Election Commission has denied it acted alone in its decisions. Supreme Court has not found any of the allegation made by the petition.
This is the second petition before the top court against the CEC. Kumar was selected by a panel of eminent artists and scientists led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2025. Other challenges to the 2023 election election commissioner appointment law, which excluded CJI from the selection panel, have also been pending.
The hearing will address whether decisions made as a Commission must be a consensus decision.
