59 mins ago
Election Commissioners Raise 14 Objections Over Poll Panel Decisions
India’s Election Commission has three top members who help manage elections.
Two of them, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, said important decisions were made without telling them.
They objected 14 times over 10 months.
Their concerns involved adding and removing voters and controlling voter-list computer systems.
They said a new question was improperly added to the form used by new voters.
They also worried that officials in New Delhi could control voter data that local officials are supposed to manage.
In Goa, software problems kept 97 voters who had been found eligible off the final list.
The Commission did not answer questions about how it handled these complaints.
Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected at least 14 times in 10 months to Election Commission decisions they said were made without their knowledge.
The objections concerned new-voter registration, voter deletions and restorations, appeals, and control of electoral-roll databases during the Special Intensive Revision.
The Commissioners called a change to Form 6 for new voters “unauthorised and illegal” and warned that voter-data access was becoming centralised.
They questioned who authorised appeals against West Bengal voters and raised concerns that software prevented Goa officials from restoring 97 eligible voters.
The Election Commission did not respond to The Indian Express’s questions about whether the Commissioners’ concerns had been addressed.
- Who
- Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised objections involving Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Election Commission of India.
- What
- The two Commissioners formally challenged at least 14 decisions and procedures involving voter registration, deletions, appeals, and electoral-roll data management.
- Where
- The issues involved the Election Commission’s national operations and specific cases in Bihar, West Bengal, Goa, New Delhi, and other states and Union Territories.
- When
- The objections were made at least 14 times over the 10 months before the article’s publication, with a full Commission meeting held on September 9.
- Why
- They said decisions were made without their knowledge, questioned the legal basis of some actions, and warned that centralised software access could weaken safeguards and exclude eligible voters.
Dissenting Commissioners’ Concerns
Election Commission’s Reported Position
Internal approval
Dissenting Commissioners’ Concerns
Sandhu and Joshi said communications and decisions were issued without the approval or knowledge of the full Commission, contrary to Article 324 and the 2023 Act.
Election Commission’s Reported Position
The Commission’s reported actions proceeded despite those objections; it did not respond to questions asking whether the concerns had been addressed.
Control of voter data
Dissenting Commissioners’ Concerns
The two Commissioners warned of the gradual centralisation of electoral-roll databases and said statutory local officials needed complete access and control.
Election Commission’s Reported Position
The Commission has traditionally defended its electoral rolls as decentralised and controlled by constituency-level Electoral Registration Officers, but the article reports no direct response to the centralisation allegations.
SIR implementation
Dissenting Commissioners’ Concerns
The Commissioners questioned the legality of changing Form 6, the authorisation of West Bengal appeals, and software decisions that left 97 eligible Goa voters off the final roll.
Election Commission’s Reported Position
The Commission continued the Special Intensive Revision and reported the figures on West Bengal appeals, but its response to the specific objections was not provided in the article.
Key facts
- Commissioners objecting
- Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi
- Number of objections
- At least 14 formal objections over 10 months
- Voter-roll exercise
- The Special Intensive Revision began in Bihar in June 2025 and affected more than 13 crore names in draft rolls across 30 States and Union Territories.
- Form 6 dispute
- A new question linked applications to the electoral roll of the last Special Intensive Revision.
- West Bengal appeals
- The Commission reported 38 lakh appeals pending before tribunals, including 22.21 lakh from deleted voters seeking restoration.
- Goa software issue
- Ninety-seven voters found eligible by Electoral Registration Officers were left off the final roll because a software rollback feature was not enabled in time.
- Legal framework
- Section 18 of the 2023 Act says Commission business should, as far as possible, be transacted unanimously, with disagreements decided by majority.
Quotes
Sukhbir Singh Sandhu
Election Commissioner who questioned the authorization of appeals against voters in West Bengal
“many communications go out in the name of the ECI but they do not have the approval of the Commission”
indianexpress.com
“Who was authorised to file these appeals on behalf of ECI, and by whom?”
indianexpress.com
Sources
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