New Delhi: The opposition is planning to submit a fresh impeachment notice against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, The Wire has learnt.It is planning to submit the notice over the next ten to 15 days. This would be the third such notice the opposition will submit against Kumar. Its last notice, given in the Rajya Sabha in April and signed by 73 MPs, is still pending.That notice was given after two separate notices submitted in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on March 12, which accused Kumar of “misbehaviour”, were rejected on April 6. The notice in the upper house was signed by 63 MPs, while the one in the Lok Sabha was signed by 130 MPs.The opposition’s latest plan comes as the Election Commission (EC) faces heightened scrutiny in the wake of an explosive Indian Express investigation revealing a measure of dysfunction at the very top levels of the poll body.In a series of reports, the newspaper has reported that CEC Kumar’s two colleagues, commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, have objected to or complained about being in the dark over a range of issues, including matters related to the contentious special intensive revision (SIR) of voter rolls.Opposition leaders have responded to the Express‘s reportage, which the EC has not explicitly denied, by demanding that Kumar step down.Back in April, the 73 Rajya Sabha opposition MPs who submitted their notice of a motion to seek Kumar’s impeachment cited nine reasons for doing so, charging the EC with ‘partisan asymmetry’ in enforcing the model code of conduct, ‘publicly denouncing’ the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and ‘disenfranchising’ people en masse in the Bengal SIR among other things.They also submitted that the nationwide SIR is a ‘defective’ exercise, alleged that the EC had deliberately chosen not to act on the TMC’s complaints and accused the poll panel of abusing its powers to direct the transfer of bureaucrats in Tamil Nadu.As per the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act of 2023, the CEC “shall not be removed from his office except in like manner and on the like grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court”.According to the Judges Inquiry Act of 1968, a Supreme Court judge can be removed if an impeachment notice is given in either house of parliament. If the notice is given in the Lok Sabha, it needs to be signed by at least 100 MPs, and if in the Rajya Sabha by at least 50 MPs. The speaker or chairperson can then decide whether to admit the motion or to refuse it.Incidentally the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act of 2023 its itself under a cloud amid allegations by the opposition as well as civil society that it loads the selection process for these officials in favour of the executive.While the Supreme Court yesterday decided to defer to the chief justice on the next course of action on challenges against Act, Justice Dipankar Datta said that the law prima facie gives an effective veto to the executive in appointing election commissioners and sends the wrong signal to the public.