The controversy surrounding the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has intensified after a petition was filed in the Supreme Court seeking action against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
Advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi has filed the petition under Article 32, alleging that several decisions, guidelines and software changes related to SIR were carried out without the concurrence of the other two Election Commissioners. The plea seeks to have such decisions declared unconstitutional and void.
The petition also challenges changes made to Form 6, which is used for voter registration, and seeks restoration of the original form. It has further requested an independent judicial inquiry or Special Investigation Team (SIT) to examine the alleged deletion of around 13 crore names from electoral rolls during the SIR exercise.
The plea names CEC Gyanesh Kumar, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Manish Garg and ECI’s IT chief Seema Khanna among the respondents. It also seeks an investigation into alleged violations of statutory duties. Petition comes after reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections on several decisions concerning SIR. According to reports, the two commissioners recorded objections on at least 14 occasions.
Meanwhile, the Congress party also criticised the CEC over the voter-list revision process. The party has alleged that the Special Summary Revision process was stopped from 2024, which it says affected the inclusion of newly eligible 18-year-old voters. Congress has accused the Election Commission of affecting young people’s voting rights. These are allegations by the party and have not been established by a court.
The Supreme Court will now consider the issues raised in the petition, while the broader political dispute over SIR continues.
