SIR row: Plea in Supreme Court seeks criminal prosecution of CEC Gyanesh Kumar

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Sep 25, 2026: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking criminal prosecution of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged violations of statutory duties in connection with decisions taken during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The plea, filed by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi through advocate-on-record Chand Qureshi, seeks a declaration that decisions, guidelines and software modifications allegedly undertaken by Kumar without the concurrence of the other two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, are unconstitutional and void.

The petitioner has also sought directions for restoring the original Form 6 used for voter registration. The plea further seeks an independent inquiry by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the circumstances surrounding the deletion of around 13 crore names from draft electoral rolls during the SIR exercise.

The petition also seeks initiation of prosecution under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, against Kumar and other officials allegedly responsible for breaches of official duty.

The plea comes days after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally recorded objections at least 14 times over 10 months regarding decisions related to voter additions, deletions, restoration of names and changes to the voter-registration process.

The Election Commission, however, has said that decisions taken by the poll panel, including those related to SIR, were unanimous decisions of the full Commission.