THE Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear next week a PIL seeking suspension of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and challenging the manner in which the poll panel led by him took decisions allegedly without the approval of two Election Commissioners. The matter was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana. Senior advocate Vikas Singh, who mentioned the matter, told the bench that as per the statutory scheme, decisions of the multi-member Election Commission have to be unanimous or by majority.

 

“The way the Election Commission is functioning, there is serious doubt over whether the decisions are unanimous,” he submitted. “We will list this next week”, the CJI said. The PIL, filed by Patna resident Rakesh Kumar Singh, has urged the top court to determine whether CEC has been exercising powers that legally belong to the Election Commission as a whole, and, if so, to declare those actions unauthorised and take appropriate legal action.