A notice to remove CEC Gyanesh Kumar is signed by 180 MPs and will be presented in Parliament.

A senior opposition leader with knowledge of the specifics stated on Wednesday that the notice for the impeachment of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, which is being spearheaded by the Trinamool Congress, will be delivered to both Houses of Parliament. The notification has been signed by at least 60 Rajya Sabha parliamentarians and 120 Lok Sabha MPs. Helmed by Trinamool Congress, which has been at war with the Election Commission of India over the SIR exercise in poll-bound West Bengal, two separate copies of the notice will be submitted in Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha by Friday, this person added, asking not to be named.

According to the leader, a non-Congress MP from the Rajya Sabha, the opposition parties will bring seven specific allegations against Kumar, including “partisan and discriminatory conduct in office,” “deliberate obstruction of investigation of electoral fraud,” and “mass disenfranchisement through SIR.”

The removal of the CEC or an EC is governed by Article 324 of the Constitution that says “…the Chief Election Commissioner shall not be removed from his office except in like manner and on the like grounds as a Judge of the Supreme Court…” The Judges Enquiry Act, that stipulates the process of removal of judges says, “In the case of a notice given in the House of the People, by not less than one hundred members of that House; (b) in the case of a notice given in the Council of States, by not less than fifty members of that Council; then, the Speaker or, as the case may be, the Chairman may, after consulting such persons, if any, as he thinks fit and after considering such materials, if any, as may be available to him, either admit the motion or refuse to admit the same.”

Even if the notice is served this week, it may take months—if the notice is accepted—for the debate to take place. By that time the elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry, expected to take place early this summer, will be over. Commenting on the move, Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien said, “our political and legal battle with continue both inside and outside Parliament.”

The plan to impeach the CEC has politically united the Opposition, but has also isolated the three fence-sitters: the Biju Janata Dal, BRS and YSRCP. 

“We did not reach out to these parties. On earlier occasions, we had sought their support but they chose to vote otherwise. This time, we have not approached these parties,” said a second senior Opposition leader. The INDIA bloc has also not reached out to AIMIM chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi.