SC defers pleas against CEC Gyanesh Kumar by 10 days, petitioners get time to respond to ECI
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "SC defers pleas against CEC Gyanesh Kumar by 10 days, petitioners get time to respond to ECI")
The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing of the pleas against CEC Gyanesh Kumar Photograph: (ANI)
The Supreme Court has deferred pleas against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar by 10 days, allowing petitioners, including Rahul Gandhi, to respond to the Election Commission’s affidavit defending its decisions and the Special Intensive Revision exercise.
The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing of the pleas against CEC Gyanesh Kumar by 10 days. The time has been given to petitioners, including Rahul Gandhi, to file responses to the ECI affidavit submitted on Monday (Oct 26). The petitions challenges the ECI’s decision-making process and seek to invalidate the SIR exercise and related actions. Singh’s plea also sought the suspension of the CEC over allegations of unilateral decision-making. A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant granted petitioner Rakesh Kumar Singh 10 days to file a rejoinder to the EC’s counter-affidavit. The matter is likely to be listed on November 17, after the Diwali vacation and completion of the 10-day period.
A day ago, the Election Commission (ECI) submitted counter-affidavit in the SC. In the counter affidavit, the ECI defended its functioning and the conduct of the SIR exercise, rejecting allegations of irregularities and questioning the basis of the petition. It said that the affidavit was unanimously approved by Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. The ECI said all three SIR orders issued in June 2025, October 2025 and May 2026 were unanimous decisions of the Commission.
On allegations concerning changes to voter enrolment forms, the ECI said Form 6 had not been amended and that only the Centre could make such changes. However, it acknowledged that the online display could be interpreted as an amendment and said that, from October 21, the online application would be split into Form 6 and a separate SIR declaration, in line with the physical form. The Commission also said voters whose records could not be mapped during the SIR need not attend hearings as a rule, with booth-level officers (BLOs) collecting documents from their homes.
