NEW DELHI: A Supreme Court advocate has sought the Attorney General for India’s consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging wilful disobedience of Supreme Court judgments governing the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Advocate Brajesh Singh, in a letter addressed to Attorney General R Venkataramani on September 24, has invoked Section 15(1)(b) read with Section 2(c) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, and Rule 3 of the Rules to Regulate Proceedings for Contempt of the Supreme Court, 1975.
The request follows a September 23 report by The Indian Express which stated that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections on at least 14 occasions over the preceding 10 months to decisions taken by the poll panel without their knowledge or approval. The report said the objections related, among other things, to changes in Form 6, addition and deletion of names from electoral rolls, and centralisation of access to the electoral-roll database.
According to Singh’s letter, the two Election Commissioners had described several decisions as “unauthorised” and “illegal”. He alleges that these actions demonstrated a departure from the constitutionally mandated functioning of the three-member Election Commission.
Alleged violation of Supreme Court precedents One of the principal grounds cited in the request is an alleged violation of the Supreme Court’s judgment in T.N. Seshan v. Union of India.
Singh contends that the judgment requires the Election Commission to function as a multi-member constitutional body and that the CEC is primus inter pares, or first among equals, rather than an absolute authority.
The Supreme Court in T.N. Seshan had held that the CEC could not be projected as being “mightier than the institution” and that decisions of a multi-member Election Commission were decisions of the Commission and not of its Chairman.
WITH every BJP victory, Opposition parties have been increasingly critical of the Election Commission of India (ECI) alleging infirmities in the electoral process – from “faulty” rolls, SIR “intimidation” to “selective” application of the Model Code of Conduct.
The revelations in the investigation published by The Indian Express Wednesday of the divide within reshaped that criticism in two significant ways.
For the first time, Opposition parties decoupled the full Commission from Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, and shifted their attack from the ECI in general to the CEC specifically.
Kumar “must go”, and “he has no right to continue in office”, was their refrain. In tandem, given the nature of the Constitutional authority, the Opposition said that the Supreme Court – already looking into aspects of the deeply contested SIR — should step in and scrutinise the decisions of the ECI.
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