The Cabinet Secretariat declined to act on complaints submitted by two Election Commissioners against a senior Election Commission official. It stated that the communications were sent in their individual capacities and that intervening without an official decision from the Commission could amount to interference in the functioning of a constitutional body.
The reports came after an RTI application disclosed the official paper trail.
According to the records, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi wrote separate letters to Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan on July 29 regarding the conduct of a senior deputy election commissioner. The letters were received by the Cabinet Secretariat on July 30.
In file notings dated August 3 and 4, the Cabinet Secretariat concluded that the communications could not be treated as official correspondence from the Election Commission as a whole because individual commissioners submitted them. It said initiating action on that basis would be inappropriate and could be interpreted as “executive interference” in an independent constitutional institution.
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Instead of taking action against the official, the Cabinet Secretary forwarded the communications on August 5 to the office of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT). The records indicate that DoPT was asked to retain the matter on record for any future administrative consideration concerning the officer.
Dispute linked to work allocation
The RTI reply does not disclose the contents of the commissioners' letters, but the correspondence followed a disputed work-allocation order issued on July 28 by a senior deputy election commissioner who had been given additional charge of the administration division, PTI reported.
In a statement issued in September, the Election Commission had said the letters concerned the functioning of an officer on deputation and that the work-redistribution orders were never implemented after the two commissioners intervened. It also said oversight of the IT division by the deputy election commissioner was never withdrawn.
The Commission added that field officers continue to have role-based access to ECINet in line with their statutory powers and announced that a committee headed by a senior deputy election commissioner, along with an independent expert from an IIT or IIIT, would review the platform for compliance with electoral laws and rules.
The RTI records were obtained through an application filed by transparency activist Commodore Lokesh K Batra (Retd).
(With inputs from PTI)