The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the proceedings in the FIRs filed by Maharashtra Police against Prof. Sanjay Kumar, a psephologist and co-director of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), over a social media post carrying erroneous data of Maharashtra Assembly elections.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice NV Anjaria passed the interim order on a petition filed by Kumar seeking the quashing of the FIRs.
Kumar, in a post on X, had alleged a dip in voter numbers in two assembly segments in Maharashtra polls compared to the 2024 general elections, which were held nearly six months apart.
He later deleted it and in another post, apologised for posting "erroneous data" on the microblogging platform.
I sincerely apologize for the tweets posted regarding Maharashtra elections.
— Sanjay Kumar (@sanjaycsds) August 19, 2025
Error occurred while comparing data of 2024 LS and 2024 AS. The data in row was misread by our Data team.
The tweet has since been removed.
I had no intention of dispersing any form of misinformation.
On Wednesday, Nagpur district police registered an FIR against the psephologist on charges of making "false statement in connection with an election".
He was booked under sections 175 (False statement in connection with an election), 353 (1) B (Statements conducting to public mischief), 212 (providing false information to a public servant), and 340 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita.
Kumar’s counsel, Advocate Sumeer Sodhi, argued that a tweet giving wrong information cannot form the basis of an FIR for offences such as forgery.
"This (is a) person with impeccable integrity. Thirty years of service to the nation and to the world. He's highly respected. It was a mistake. He apologised. He deleted and apologised publicly," the counsel said.
Kumar’s social media post and his apology had sparked a political storm with the BJP accusing the Congress of targeting the Election Commission in collusion with a Delhi-based think tank. The party also accused the CSDS of contributing to the opposition parties' "narrative setting".
#WATCH | On Congress claiming discrepancies in Maharashtra voters' data, BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia says, " For 40 hours, lies were floated to weaken our democracy and raise baseless questions on the Election Commission. Who will take responsibility for this? Will Rahul Gandhi… pic.twitter.com/11OxTK62Vm
— ANI (@ANI) August 19, 2025
Kumar's post on August 17 claimed a significant decrease in voter numbers in two assembly seats in Maharashtra compared to the 2024 general elections. Two days later, he removed the tweet and issued an apology for sharing erroneous data.
"I sincerely apologise for the tweets posted regarding the Maharashtra elections. Error occurred while comparing data of 2024 LS and 2024 AS. The data in row was misread by our Data team,” he said.
"I had no intention of dispersing any form of misinformation,” he added.
