Conflict of interest concerns follow CEC Gyanesh Kumar from Sambhal to the Supreme Court

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is facing scrutiny over key decisions taken without the knowledge and consent of fellow election commissioners, as revealed in an investigation by The Indian Express.

There are also questions of conflict of interest over relief granted to Kumar’s daughter, Noida District Magistrate Medha Roopam, by a Supreme Court bench led by Justice Satish Chandra Sharma. The judge’s son serves as standing counsel for the poll body in Madhya Pradesh, reported LiveLaw.

This is not the first time that concerns about conflict of interest have surfaced around Kumar and his family.

On May 7, 2024, video footage showed Muslim voters being forced out of several polling stations in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, while the Lok Sabha election was underway.

Many of these voters were women, who told Scroll that police officials had assaulted them to prevent them from voting.

But the Election Commission did not act on these complaints. Instead, it came out in support of a statement by the returning officer and labelled the damning footage as “false” and “misleading”.

The returning officer overseeing the polls in Sambhal was district magistrate Manish Bansal – the son-in-law of Gyanesh Kumar, then serving as an election commissioner.

The poll body has two election commissioners apart from the Chief Election Commissioner. All decisions are required to be made...

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