Opposition moves fresh notice to remove Gyanesh Kumar as CEC, cites ‘grave misconduct’

New Delhi: Citing nine charges that are "freshly accrued" after the announcement of Assembly elections, Opposition on Friday submitted a fresh notice in Rajya Sabha seeking removal of Gyanesh Kumar as Chief Election Commissioner within days of the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman rejecting their notices.

Seventy-three Rajya Sabha MPs from at least 14 parties -- Congress, Trinamool Congress, DMK, Samajwadi Party, AAP, CPI(M), CPI, Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP(SP), Muslim League, RJD, National Conference, JMM and Kerala Congress (M) -- signed the 13-page notice submitted at the Rajya Sabha Secretariat by Congress' Jairam Ramesh and Trinamool's Sagarika Ghose, sources said.

In March, Kumar had become the first CEC against whom the Opposition had submitted a notice seeking removal.

The notices submitted in both the Houses were rejected on April 6 while the Opposition has once again moved a similar notice, another first in India’s Parliamentary history. The first letter with 53 signatures was submitted in Rajya Sabha on March 12 while 130 MPs had signed the notice submitted in Lok Sabha on the same day.

The latest notice -- which came a day after the polling in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal (first phase) -- seeking Kumar's removal on the ground of "proved misbehaviour of the gravest character" is confined to "acts and omissions" occurring on or after March 15, the day the schedule for Assembly elections were announced.

In the notice, the Opposition has also mentioned the deletion of voters in West Bengal displaying "disproportionate and communal character", the replication of the SIR to 22 more states even before the Supreme Court adjudicating on the validity of the exercise and "illegal" order of transfers in Tamil Nadu by abusing power and adverse judicial observations against the EC in SIR petition.

The notice said the charges -- including "continued partisan asymmetry" in the enforcement of Model Code of Conduct -- "demonstrate a course of conduct, sustained over a period of barely 38 days between 15 March, 2026 and the date of this notice, that is wholly incompatible with the independence, impartiality, and constitutional dignity required" of the holder of the office of the CEC.

The first charge related to the "differential enforcement" of the MCC in which Kumar issuing "no show-cause notice, no advisory and no public response" to complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his address to the nation, which was "substantially identical" to a poll speech in Coimbatore, accusing the Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party of committing "foeticide" of 33% women’s quota.

"In stark contrast to the inaction described hereinabove, the Commission...has shown an alacrity of action in respect of analogous complaints filed by the BJP against Opposition leaders, including the...Congress," it said in apparent reference to the notice issued to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for his "terrorist" jibe on Modi, which was subsequently clarified.

It also took umbrage at the "direct, public and singular denunciation" of a recognised political party by name after the EC posted on 'X', "ECI's straight talk to Trinamool Congress" after a heated meeting with its leaders, and Kumar "permitted, authorised, or failed forthwith to disavow such a post".

Kumar's alleged "get lost" remark at the Trinamool delegation also found space in the notice where it said it was a conduct unbecoming of a Constitutional functionary. The notice also said the meeting was terminated by Kumar within 5-7 minutes.

The circulation of a Kerala CEO document with a BJP seal was mentioned in the notice, saying the "physical use of the seal" of a party within an office functioning under the superintendence of Kumar has occurred in an election-bound state and it in itself was an indicator of the institutional environment created under his leadership. Disciplinary action against individual officers, though appropriate, does not discharge Kumar's superintending responsibility.