Overview

• A bench led by Chief Justice B R Gavai with Justices Vinod Chandran and N V Anjaria issued notice on the state’s appeal and stayed the July 18 Uttarakhand High Court order.
• The stay suspends directives for the State Election Commissioner and chief secretary to probe whether an ADM who cannot speak English can effectively perform executive duties.
• It also halts the examination of relying solely on family registers under the 1970 Panchayat Raj rules for finalizing panchayat electoral roll entries.
• The Uttarakhand HC had flagged that family registers are omitted from the 1994 Registration of Electors Rules and cast doubt on the legality of using them as the sole voter authentication document.
• The case will return to the Supreme Court once the state responds to the notice and before any lower‐court investigations resume.