On March 13, 2026, opposition parties led by the Trinamool Congress submitted an impeachment motion against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The motion was signed by 130 Lok Sabha MPs and 63 Rajya Sabha MPs, totaling 193 parliamentarians.
Seven charges are listed against Kumar, including allegations of partisan and discriminatory conduct, obstruction of electoral fraud investigations, and mass disenfranchisement. Opposition parties have particularly criticized the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, alleging it was manipulated to benefit the ruling BJP and disenfranchise genuine voters, especially in West Bengal.
Kumar, a 1988-batch IAS officer, was part of the team that drafted the bill scrapping Article 370 in Kashmir in August 2019 while serving as Joint Secretary (Kashmir Division) in the Home Ministry. In 2020, as Additional Secretary, he managed documents related to the Supreme Court case on the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and was instrumental in forming the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.
The controversial SIR exercise was launched across nine states and three union territories on November 4, 2025, covering about 51 crore electors. In West Bengal alone, out of 7.66 crore registered voters, around 1.67 crore voters were affected, with over 58 lakh names deleted from the rolls.
This marks the first time in India's history that a notice has been moved seeking the removal of a Chief Election Commissioner. The impeachment process follows the same procedure as removing a Supreme Court judge, requiring approval by special majority in both Houses of Parliament before being sent to the President.
