On Thursday, Sep 24, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra lodged a police complaint at Parliament Street Police Station in New Delhi against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, accusing him of procedural violations in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
The filing arrives as internal dissent within the three‑member Election Commission of India becomes public, with Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi said to have recorded objections on at least 14 occasions over a ten‑month span concerning the roll‑revision exercise.
Speaking to reporters after submitting the complaint, Moitra asserted that important decisions were taken and circulated without the consent of the other two commissioners, contending that orders issued in the commission's name lack collective approval.
She also challenged the statutory immunity granted under Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, arguing that it should not shield actions taken without unanimous agreement.
Moitra highlighted that ground‑level officials such as Electoral Registration Officers and Booth Level Officers were bypassed through centralized control of the Election Commission's IT system, and that Form 6, the statutory voter‑registration form, was amended without following the prescribed rule‑change procedure. A new question linking an applicant or his ancestors to the SIR was introduced, she said, despite objections from the two other commissioners.
She further alleged that the manner in which names were added or removed from rolls led to genuine voters being excluded, citing West Bengal where roughly 33 lakh voters were kept off the electoral roll through appellate proceedings she described as lacking proper authorisation.
The Election Commission has rejected the notion of unilateral action, maintaining that internal objections do not amount to decisions and that all final actions on the SIR were taken unanimously by the three commissioners.
The controversy intensified after reports surfaced of Sandhu and Joshi raising objections concerning voter de
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📰 Source: Daijiworld