In a major development detailing internal governance within India’s apex electoral body, documents obtained through the Right to Information (RTI) Act reveal that the Cabinet Secretariat forwarded sensitive letters written by two Election Commissioners directly to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
The confidential letters—submitted on July 29 by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi—raised strong objections regarding an administrative work-allocation order issued by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC) Maneesh Garg. The RTI disclosures confirm that while the Cabinet Secretariat shared the letters with CEC Gyanesh Kumar, it deliberately refrained from intervening directly to avoid any action that could be “construed as interference” in an independent constitutional body.
Dispute Over Work Allocation and IT Operations
The conflict began on July 28, when Maneesh Garg was assigned temporary additional charge of the Administration Division during the leave of DEC Bhanu Prakash Yeturu. Within hours, Garg issued an order reallocating duties among senior and equivalent officers, including Director General of IT Seema Khanna and DEC Sanjay Kumar.
In their separate representations to Cabinet Secretary T.V. Somanathan, Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi noted that they were not consulted prior to the order. Both officials cited Sections 18(1) and 18(2) of the 2023 Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, which mandate collective decision-making. Commissioner Joshi also reported that a file requested from the Administration Division was not provided.
The routing of IT department files remains a pivotal issue, particularly following reports regarding new IT protocols implemented under Khanna that restricted Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) from directly accessing the electors’ database.
Cabinet Secretariat’s Internal Findings
The documents released under the RTI Act to transparency advocate Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd.) clarify the secretariat’s evaluation:
- August 3: An internal note proposed seeking CEC Gyanesh Kumar’s opinion on the allegations.
- August 4: A subsequent note observed that the letters represented individual communications rather than a formal decision from the Election Commission of India.
- August 5: Formal acknowledgments were issued and copied to the Secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the Establishment Officer, and the Principal Private Secretary to the CEC.
To preserve the constitutional boundaries of the Election Commission, the secretariat advised placing the records with DoPT to inform future decisions concerning the officer involved.
