Says cabinet secretary letters not related to policy matters
NEW DELHI, SEP 26 (PTI): The Election Commission on Saturday asserted that all SIR orders received unanimous consent from all three Commissioners and that the updates to Form 6 for voter enrolment were upheld by the Supreme Court, as it sought to address issues at the centre of a raging row over decision-making in the poll panel and concerns of voters who have been issued notices or are left out from the rolls.
After its first meeting following reports claiming differences between Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the two Election Commissioners, the EC said the letters sent by commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi to the Cabinet Secretary pertained to an officer on deputation, rather than policy or IT division matters.
The Indian Express had reported that Sandhu and Joshi wrote separately to Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan after issuance of a work allocation order within the poll body that “threatened to concentrate the powers” at the EC centrally to add or delete names and update records in the voters’ list rather than allowing officials at the state level.
In a statement on Saturday, the Election Commission (EC) clarified that the work redistribution orders issued by the officer concerned were never implemented following directions from the two Commissioners. The EC also announced a slew of decisions for the ease of voters who have been issued notices, including doorstep collection of documents and extending deadlines in Delhi and Maharashtra.
The newspaper report had claimed that Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation. The objections covered changes to the statutory voter registration Form 6, the handling of additions and deletions from electoral rolls, and centralised control over the electoral roll database.
The EC statement said all directions issued by the Commissioners to the officers of the Commission shall be meticulously complied with Approval of the Commission will be taken for foreign trips of the officers, it said.
For all Commission meetings, the agenda will be circulated in advance and minutes will be issued and the Annual Performance Appraisal Reports of all the officers will be completed within the stipulated time frame, i.e., December 31 every year, said the EC statement issued after the meeting on Saturday attended by the CEC and the other two commissioners and with the approval of all three.
The Deputy Election Commissioner’s oversight of the IT division was never withdrawn, it said.
A Committee headed by a Senior Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC) and including an independent expert from IIT/IIIT will review the ECINET to double-check that it complies with the provisions of the Acts and Rules and submit a report to the Commission.
Henceforth, the Commission said, all new initiatives about IT modules and portals will be discussed in the Committee of Officers (COO) before approval by the Commission.
It is the second EC statement after The Indian Express report sparked an uproar with the opposition demanding CEC Kumar’s sacking and the scrapping of SIR.