Opposition leaders urged judicial scrutiny of the Election Commission on Wednesday after a newspaper investigation reported that two commissioners had repeatedly objected to decisions affecting voter rolls.
The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded at least 14 objections over 10 months to steps taken during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Their reported concerns covered voter registration, deletion and restoration of names, changes to application procedures and control of electoral-roll software.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav called on the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the disclosures. Congress MP Manish Tewari alleged that an “invisible hand” was running the Commission. Neither allegation establishes that the reported objections altered a Commission decision or that an outside party directed its work.
The Commission rejected suggestions of a split. According to its response reported on Wednesday, views expressed by individual commissioners did not amount to decisions of the three-member body, and decisions concerning SIR were taken unanimously with the approval of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Sandhu and Joshi. That account leaves a question over how the written objections were addressed before decisions were finalised.
The investigation said Joshi raised concerns in May about centralised access to the electoral-roll database and proposed an audit of who could change voter records. It also detailed objections to a change affecting Form 6, used to apply for voter registration. The newspaper said it sent the Commission questions on September 21 about its handling of the commissioners’ concerns.
The dispute comes as the Supreme Court examines aspects of SIR separately. At a hearing on Tuesday concerning Delhi’s voter rolls, the court questioned whether notices to voters flagged for discrepancies had been issued mechanically and sought the Commission’s response.
