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 the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, reported Live Law.
The report said advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi filed the plea under Article 32 of the Constitution, challenging decisions, guidelines and software modifications allegedly undertaken by Kumar without the concurrence of the other two Election Commissioners, and seeking to have them declared unconstitutional and void.
The petition comes days after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections on at least 14 occasions over decisions and orders related to the SIR, including changes to Form 6 and the management of electoral-roll data. According to the report, the objections concerned decisions allegedly taken without their knowledge or against their recommendations.
Deep Dive
What are the main objections raised by Election Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)?
Why is the change to Form 6 considered controversial in the context of first-time voters?
How could the ongoing SIR affect voters who have been deleted from the electoral rolls?
What the plea alleges
The petitioner has also sought directions to the competent authority to register complaints and initiate prosecution under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, against Kumar, senior deputy election commissioner Maneesh Garg, director general (IT) Seema Khanna and any other officials found responsible for the alleged breach of official duty, Live Law reported.
The plea invokes Section 32, which provides for punishment for specified breaches of official duty relating to the preparation, revision or correction of electoral rolls.
{{/usCountry}}The plea invokes Section 32, which provides for punishment for specified breaches of official duty relating to the preparation, revision or correction of electoral rolls.
{{/usCountry}}It alleges that the violations include unauthorised modifications to Form 6, centralisation of electoral-roll databases. Tripathi's plea reportedly also mentions the reported failure to restore eligible voters through the ECINet system and the filing of 16.10 lakh appeals in West Bengal challenging the inclusion of voters purportedly in the name of the ECI, the report added.
The petition reportedly says that Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu had objected to the alteration of Form 6 in May 2026, with Joshi noting that the statutory form could not be changed without amending the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
Despite this, the plea alleges, Form 6 on the ECINet portal was modified to seek details of an applicant’s or their relatives’ presence in the previous SIR roll. Sandhu later recorded that the change was “unauthorised and illegal,” the report in Live Law said.
What the plea seeks
According to the report, the petitioner has sought an independent judicial inquiry or SIT headed by a retired SC judge and assisted by cybersecurity and IT experts to conduct a forensic audit of the ECINet and ERONet databases.
The reported plea also seeks quashing of the alleged modifications to Form 6 on the ECINet and ERONet portals and restoration of the statutory form prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
It further seeks preservation of server logs, databases, communications and metadata related to ECINet and ERONet from October 1, 2025, until the investigation is completed.