Gyanesh Kumar case: 'People's chargesheet' blocked from reaching ECI; backlash grows over SC remarks on Form 6
A delegation of former civil servants and citizens were unable to submit the 'people's chargesheet and notice of impeachment' to CEC Kumar, but were unable to do so, as all routes to Nirvachan Sadan have been barricaded
A delegation of former civil servants and citizens were unable to submit the 'people's chargesheet and notice of impeachment' to CEC Kumar, but were unable to do so, as all routes to Nirvachan Sadan have been barricaded.
A delegation of former civil servants and citizens were unable to submit the 'people's chargesheet and notice of impeachment' to CEC Kumar, but were unable to do so, as all routes to Nirvachan Sadan have been barricaded.
A delegation of former civil servants and citizens were unable to submit the 'people's chargesheet and notice of impeachment' to CEC Kumar, but were unable to do so, as all routes to Nirvachan Sadan have been barricaded.
Amid the ongoing protests against Gyanesh Kumar by the Opposition and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a delegation of former civil servants and citizens were blocked on Monday from submitting a "people's chargesheet" to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The submission also included a "notice of impeachment", which the delegation alone was supposed to submit to Kumar, but was unable to do so, as all routes to Nirvachan Sadan have been barricaded.
The delegation then spoke to the media at the Press Club as the agitation against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) reached its fourth day. Their notice included six charges against Kumar, including alleged breaches of ECI's collective authority, unauthorised alteration of Form 6, centralisation of electoral-roll administration via ECINet, mass disenfranchisement through the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), actions that were allegedly inconsistent with the EC’s independence and impartiality, and multiple breaches of statutory duty.
The delegation included former Delhi LG Najeeb Jung, former Union home secretary G.K. Pillai, former ambassador Ashok Sharma, former IB special director Yashovardhan Azad, and activists Anjali Bhardwaj and Yogendra Yadav.
This comes after backlash against Kumar intensified, following the Monday Supreme Court hearing over allegations that he unilaterally took multiple decisions related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) that affected crores of voters.
In the hearing, the apex court had refused to pass any interim orders on CEC Kumar, saying that it could not make rulings based on "assumptions", without first verifying the facts.
However, the Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V. Mohana hearing the case orally observed that the "modified Form 6 has not been approved by us", a Bar and Bench report said.
This added to the backlash against Kumar further, with CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke questioning how it happened.
"How did Gyanu modify Form 6 without the Supreme Court’s approval? On whose orders did he do it?" he wrote in an X post, calling the CEC "the biggest traitor of India".
"It is now established beyond doubt that Gyanesh Kumar changed Form 6 illegally and unilaterally. This is just one more proof of him abusing his position to help the BJP," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote on X, citing parts of an ECI press note.
In response to the Supreme Court's statements, Advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi, one of the petitioners in the Monday case—who based his plea on the objections made by Election Commisioners (ECs) to Kumar over a span of 10 months—said that no date had been fixed for the petition to be heard again.
"The Court will now proceed further after receiving responses from the respondents," Advocate Tripathi said.