Kerala Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan is scheduled to move a resolution in the state Assembly on Monday under Rule 118, seeking the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the restoration of voting rights to citizens excluded from electoral rolls, and a restructured appointment panel for election commissioners that includes the Chief Justice of India.
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The Kerala Assembly is scheduled on Monday to take up a resolution moved by Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan calling for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the restoration of franchise to eligible voters struck off electoral rolls, and changes to the body responsible for overseeing the appointment of election commissioners.
A bulletin distributed by the Assembly on Sunday placed the resolution on the introduction agenda under Rule 118.
The motion put before the legislature contends that procedural lapses during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls have eroded trust in the Election Commission's ability to carry out its mandate impartially. According to the resolution, complaints were raised that hundreds of thousands of eligible voters had been dropped from electoral rolls without defined criteria or advance notification.
Four groups — people from marginalised communities, minority populations, migrant workers, and younger voters — are named in the document as those whose access to the ballot may be placed at risk by procedural gaps and what the resolution characterises as deliberate interference.
The draft contends that barring certain adults from voting runs counter to democratic foundations and places the constitutional right to universal suffrage at risk. Among its provisions, the measure seeks to address inaccuracies in voter registration records and restore full electoral access to those the resolution describes as having been wrongly excluded from the rolls.
The motion also includes challenges directed at the software platform relied upon for compiling and verifying electoral rolls. The petition contends that powers vested in electoral registration officers by the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, have been narrowed by the system in ways those statutes did not permit.
The petition further contends that Form 6 underwent amendments in violation of procedural rules, and draws on news reports indicating that several Election Commission members had voiced objections to those changes. Under the draft's terms, the Commission would be required to operate free from governmental interference while keeping its processes open to scrutiny.
The position put forward in the resolution holds that interference with voter registration records poses a threat to the legitimacy of the democratic process.
A further point of contention involves how election commissioners are chosen. Under the resolution, a panel would be formed drawing together three figures — the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and the Chief Justice of India. The argument put forward holds that laws passed at the national level subsequently removed the Chief Justice from the selection panel and handed the executive branch a majority of its seats, thereby, in the resolution's framing, eroding the Commission's independence.
The motion includes a call for action against the Chief Election Commissioner, who faces unresolved allegations, with proponents arguing that such a step would help rebuild trust in the institution. Three demands — each tied to the protection of democratic process and constitutional principles as framed in the document — form the basis of a closing call directed at both the Election Commission and the Union government.
The Assembly bulletin records the scheduling of the resolution for introduction. Whether the resolution was ultimately adopted falls outside the scope of the document.