India’s three-member poll panel finds itself embroiled in a controversy amid speculations of rift between chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar (CEC) and two election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
After a news report that Sandhu and Joshi had objected to certain key decisions of the Election Commission of India (ECI), including those related to the contentious Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, opposition parties called for Kumar’s resignation and the Supreme Court’s intervention, also questioning the integrity of the poll process. The poll body rejected charges of one-sided decision-making, saying differences are part of the deliberation process but all ECI decisions are unanimous. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) distanced itself from the controversy. One of the major controversies broke out in the 1990s, when TN Seshan was the CEC. Then the Narasimha Rao government appointed MS Gill and GVG Krishnamurthy as election commissioners. Seshan challenged the move, arguing that the additional commissioners diluted the CEC’s authority. The tensions did not end there. Gill and Krishnamurthy objected, arguing that Seshan could not effectively bypass the other constitutional commissioners by handing charge to a subordinate official. More than a decade later, the fault line shifted from the CEC’s authority to allegations about the neutrality of an individual election commissioner.
Two election commissioners were appointed in October 1989, but the arrangement lasted only until January 1990. The commission returned to a single-member structure until 1993. The Supreme Court rejected his challenge in July 1995, holding that Article 324 of the Constitution permits a multi-member Election Commission and that the other commissioners were not merely advisers to the CEC but members of the Commission with a role in its decision-making.
In 1995, while Seshan was away in the US, he authorised a deputy election commissioner to hold the “current charge” of the commission.
Previously, the Election Commission had traditionally functioned as a one-member body, with the CEC effectively exercising the institution’s authority.
