The petitions before the Supreme Court are Rakesh Kumar Singh v. Union of India and Shailendra Mani Tripathi v. Union of India. They seek action against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

The core allegation is that 14 crucial SIR decisions were taken in the CEC’s name without the concurrence of the two other Election Commissioners, Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr Vivek Joshi. The petitions cite Section 18 of the CEC Act, 2023, which says commission decisions must be unanimous as far as possible, or by majority.

The petitioners had sought interim suspension of Kumar. Senior advocate Vikas Singh told the court that some interim orders were needed, ‘otherwise the country will burn’.

On October 5, a bench headed by CJI Surya Kant declined ex-parte interim relief. It said orders cannot be passed on newspaper reports alone and sought the ECI’s response first.

What next? The court will examine official records. It said that if decisions were taken without the required unanimity, it could revisit them. Kumar continues as CEC meanwhile.