India

Cabinet Secretariat Refuses to Act on Election Commissioners’ Objections, Citing Constitutional Independence

By TNN

After election commissioners S S Sandhu and Vivek Joshi sent letters to cabinet secretary T V Somanathan on July 29 objecting to a reallocation of work among senior commission officers ordered by senior deputy election commissioner Maneesh Garg, the cabinet secretariat declined to intervene. The secretariat said the communications were not from the Election Commission as a whole and noted that the commission is a constitutional body independent of executive control.

The letters from Sandhu and Joshi, which were nearly identical, complained that Garg had revised the allocation of work among senior officers without prior discussion with the commission or the affected officers. The reallocation, issued while Garg was acting for Deputy Election Commissioner (Administration) Bhanu Prakash Yeturu, would have changed the routing of files in the IT division headed by DG Seema Khanna, removing them from the purview of DEC Sanjay Kumar.

According to a report by The Indian Express on September 23, the commissioners had also noted that the ECINET software managed by the IT division was too centralised and blocked field officers authorised by law from making changes to the electoral roll. The reallocation order was never implemented after the commissioners’ objections.

A confidential note from the cabinet secretariat, shared with transparency activist Commodore Lokesh K Batra (retd) as part of an RTI response, explained that the commission’s constitutional status insulates it from executive interference. The secretariat acknowledged the letters from the two commissioners but stated that they were in an individual capacity and not a formal communication from the commission as a whole. It added that Garg, as an officer of the poll panel, is governed by the commission’s rules and guidelines and that decisions of the commission must be unanimous or, if not possible, by majority.

The note concluded that, in the absence of an official communication from the commission as a whole, any action at that stage could be seen as inappropriate interference. Consequently, the secretariat only sent an acknowledgement to the two commissioners, with copies to the Chief Election Commissioner and the Department of Personnel and Training.

Sources say no further action was taken by the commission or the Chief Election Commissioner, as Garg’s order, based on a 1997 office order, was deemed to be within the rules. The 1997 order delegated the commission’s financial and administrative powers to the DECs, giving the Deputy Election Commissioner (Administration) the authority over appointment, recruitment, transfer and posting of employees and personal staff of the commission and the DECs.

Batra requested copies of the commissioners’ communications, details of the steps taken by the cabinet secretariat, and the relevant file notings on September 24.