Top Court To Hear Plea Against Decisions By Poll Body Chief Gyanesh Kumar Next Week

The Election Commission has maintained that it took all decisions unanimously

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear next week a petition which raised doubts over the decisions taken by the Election Commission of India led by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

The matter was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, who mentioned the matter, told the bench that as per the statutory scheme, decisions of the multi-member Election Commission have to be unanimous or by majority.

"The way the Election Commission is functioning, there is serious doubt over whether the decisions are unanimous," he submitted.

The plea comes in the backdrop of a report in the Indian Express which claimed that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi Sandhu had objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation

However, the poll panel had said in a statement that the letters sent by Sandhu and Joshi to the Cabinet Secretary pertained to an officer on deputation, rather than policy or IT division matters.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)