Supreme Court to Hear Plea Against Election Commission Chief Over Voter Roll Revisions

The Supreme Court on Monday is scheduled to hear a batch of pleas seeking the suspension of Election Commission of India chief Gyanesh Kumar over decisions related to the country's controversial voter roll revisions, allegedly taken unilaterally, India media reported.

Critics say a nationwide voter-verification exercise — called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) — which began last year, has disenfranchised millions of eligible voters by striking their names from electoral rolls

Kumar has been under intense public scrutiny after the Indian Express daily reported that two of his fellow election commissioners raised at least 14 formal objections over 10 months regarding voter registrations, deletions and restorations, as well as control of electoral roll data, but those concerns were not taken into consideration.

Kumar heads the three-member commission, which has overseen the voter roll revisions.

The Election Commission of India rejects allegations of wrongdoing and says the process removes deceased, relocated and duplicate voters and also prevents the inclusion of "foreign illegal immigrants."

Opposition parties and critics allege that the changes to voter lists benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a charge the party denies.

Kumar is yet to make a comment on the allegations against him.

On Monday, a three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, is expected to hear petitions over the decisions taken by Kumar allegedly without the approval of the two election commissioners.

One of the petitions is seeking a declaration that the chief election commissioner cannot take decisions for the ECI without the concurrence of the other two Election Commissioners, legal news website LiveLaw reported.

The other seeks a revocation of the 14 reported decisions allegedly taken unilaterally, along with the constitution of an independent judicial inquiry commission or a special investigation team headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court to probe the allegations against Kumar.

The hearing comes afterthousands of protesters and opposition supporters rallied in Delhi and Mumbai over the weekend to demand Kumar's resignation.

This is Dharvi Vaid Dhulia from DW’s studio in New Delhi and this is the Monday edition of our India blog. Here we breakdown all the biggest headlines that are making a splash in the world’s most populous country.

Protests demanding the resignation of India’s poll body chief Gyanesh Kumar over alleged wrongdoing during sweeping changes to voter rolls have gripped the nation.

Large-scale demonstrations, helmed by opposition activists and the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) movement, were held over the weekend in the national capital of New Delhi and India’s financial hub of Mumbai.

The CJP, which has been riding a wave of public success after its debut campaign in July led to the resignation of the then education minister, now has Kumar in its crosshairs.

The Gen-Z led pressure group has announced a protest march to New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on October 10.

Meanwhile, legal pressure also surrounds Kumar with India's top court slated to hear petitions against the chief election commissioner today.

Stay tuned as we bring you more.