Supreme Court halts police action against Sanjay Kumar in voter rolls case

Supreme Court seeks response from the Election Commission and the Maharashtra government; says no coercive action until further hearing

The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday directed that no coercive action be taken against psephologist Sanjay Kumar in connection with two criminal cases filed over his social media posts on alleged anomalies in Maharashtra’s electoral rolls.

 

A bench headed by Chief Justice B R Gavai, along with Justice N V Anjaria, issued notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the state of Maharashtra on Kumar’s plea seeking to quash the cases.

 

“Issue notice. In the meantime, there shall be no coercive action,” the bench said.

 

What triggered the case

On August 17, the co-director of Lokniti at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) had posted on the social media platform X that the number of voters in Nashik West and Hingna Assembly segments rose by 47 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively, between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. He also said Ramtek and Devlali segments recorded steep drops of 38 per cent and 36 per cent.

 

 

The claims came at a politically sensitive moment. The Congress party had alleged “vote theft” in Maharashtra, citing CSDS data to support its charge. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) countered that CSDS was supplying inaccurate numbers to the opposition.

 

Two days later, Kumar deleted his posts and issued a clarification with an apology.

 

“I sincerely apologise… The data in row was misread by our data team. The tweet has since been removed. I had no intention of dispersing any form of misinformation,”  he wrote on X.

 

Legal action despite apology

Despite the clarification, the Nashik District Election Office lodged an FIR, urging citizens to rely only on official voter statistics available on the ECI website. Nagpur police later also registered a case.

 

Kumar has been booked under the provisions of the Bharat Nyaya Samhita for allegedly spreading misinformation about voter additions and deletions in Nashik and Nagpur districts.

 

His petition before the Supreme Court argues that the FIRs are a misuse of law and amount to harassment of an academic for an inadvertent mistake. Senior advocate Vivek Tankha and lawyer Sumeer Sodhi, representing Kumar, pointed out that he had promptly withdrawn the posts and issued a public apology.

 

SC seeks response from Election Commission, Maharashtra govt

The apex court has sought responses from the ECI and the Maharashtra government before hearing the matter further. Until then, the state police cannot proceed with coercive measures against Kumar.

 

(With agency inputs)