All decisions taken by the Election Commission (EC), including the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, had the approval of all three election commissioners, EC sources told HT on Wednesday.
What the report said
The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioner Vivek Joshi had objected to this change in May. The objections covered some of the most important parts of the voter registration process. These included adding new voters, removing names from voter lists, maintaining the voter database and filing appeals against decisions on voters. The applicant had to answer the question before submitting the form. Sandhu later supported the objection.
The clarification followed an Indian Express report that said Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded objections to decisions taken in the commission’s name at least 14 times over 10 months. The reported disagreements involved changes to Form 6, the centralisation of ERONet controls in Delhi, voter deletion appeals in West Bengal and the failure to add some eligible voters to the electoral rolls in Goa. Among the specific instances cited, Joshi warned that Form 6 for new voters could not be changed in the proposed manner without amending the rules, but the change was carried out regardless, following which Sandhu called it “unauthorised and illegal. He said Form 6 was prescribed under the electoral rules and could not be changed without amending those rules. The report said the question remained on the form until September 21.
Four such objections were made on the same day, the report said. The ECI said the decisions were unanimous and had the approval of both Election Commissioners and the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar . “All decisions of the Election Commission of India, including SIR, have been unanimous and with the approval of both the Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner,” the statement to HT read.
