Petition asks Supreme Court to act over election decisions

Lawyer Shailendra Mani Tripathi has filed a petition in India’s Supreme Court seeking to invalidate decisions and software changes he alleges Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar made without the concurrence of the other two election commissioners. The petition also asks the court to order criminal proceedings against Kumar and other officials, restore the original voter-registration form and direct an inquiry into alleged voter deletions. The court’s response, if any, was not reported. The petition concerns the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. It alleges that decisions, guidelines and changes to election software were implemented without the full commission’s agreement or contrary to its majority view. Tripathi argues that the commission must make decisions collectively under applicable law. These claims are allegations in the petition and have not been adjudicated. One central issue is Form 6, used to apply for voter registration. The petition alleges that the form was changed to require ancestry details and information linking applicants to a previous SIR, without the statutory process needed to amend the prescribed form.