The Opposition accuses Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of ruling 'like a dictator', while two other commissioners have objected to panel decisions about the special intensive revision of electoral rolls. The Supreme Court refers petitions challenging a 2023 law governing the appointment of Election Commission members to a larger bench. Meanwhile, journalist Ravi Nair is in judicial custody in a defamation case filed by Adani Enterprises Limited.
The Opposition has accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of ruling 'like a dictator'. This accusation follows reports that the two other election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had objected to panel decisions about the special intensive revision of electoral rolls 14 times in 10 months. The disputes centered around matters such as registration of new voters, deletions and restoration of electors, filing of appeals against voter inclusion, and custody and security of the electoral rolls.
Reacting to this, the Congress stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kumar ‘together have caused great damage to the country’s democracy’. The Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the matter.
The Supreme Court has referred petitions challenging a 2023 law governing the appointment of members of the Election Commission to a larger bench. During the hearing, Justice Dipankar Datta expressed concern that the law ‘does not appear to ensure an independent selection process’. He also stated that a 'nominee of the prime minister in the selection committee cannot be expected to defy the prime minister'. Justice Satish Chandra Sharma disagreed with these observations, stating that a ‘substantial question of law was involved in the matter’, which must be decided by a larger bench.
Journalist Ravi Nair is in judicial custody in a criminal defamation case filed by Adani Enterprises Limited. The case pertains to a series of social media posts published by Nair between October 2020 and July 2021 about the Adani Group, relating to allegations by United States-based short seller Hindenburg Research and a strike against the proposed privatisation of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. Nair was taken into custody on September 17 and sent to jail for failing to appear in person for a hearing in the defamation case.
Source:
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