New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Monday heard the petitions filed against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The bench of CJI Surya Kant, Justice Jaimalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana said that the order cannot be given on the basis of the report published in the newspaper. The court has issued notice to the Election Commission, Gyanesh Kumar and the other two election commissioners and sought their response.
During the hearing, the Supreme Court bench clearly said that it will not give an interim order to suspend the Chief Election Commissioner. The CJI also clearly said during the hearing that the Supreme Court had not approved any changes in Form-6 of the Election Commission. In the petitions filed against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, it has been alleged that he took all the decisions on his own. In fact, recently a newspaper had published the news that two other election commissioners SS Sandhu and Vivek Joshi expressed disagreement on decisions 14 times in 10 months. After these allegations, the Election Commission had issued a clarification saying that disagreement is part of the process and the Election Commission has taken all the decisions unanimously.
At the same time, politics has heated up in this matter. Congress and opposition parties are attacking the Chief Election Commissioner. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, reiterating the old allegation of vote theft, have demanded removal of Gyanesh Kumar from the post of Chief Election Commissioner, cancellation of SIR and holding elections again through ballot paper instead of EVMs. Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee also have the same demand. At the same time, BJP says that when he was PM, it was Rajiv Gandhi who started voting through EVMs by removing the ballot paper. BJP is also saying that the opposition is spreading confusion. BJP also says that the Election Commission had not made any changes in Form-6. During the bus SIR, it was asked to give a separate declaration along with Form-6. This declaration has now been abolished by the Election Commission.