The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced nine decisions aimed at addressing concerns over the functioning of the three-member poll panel, including the management of electoral rolls, internal procedures and technology systems.
The decisions came days after an investigation by The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections at least 14 times on issues linked to voter registration, deletion and restoration of names, appeals and electoral-roll systems.
The ECI had earlier described these objections as “suggestions” and “inputs” arising during normal deliberations, while maintaining that key decisions over the past year had received the “unanimous” approval of the full Commission.
What are the nine new ECI decisions?
Following its latest meeting, the Commission issued a four-page note outlining several changes.
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Agendas will now be circulated before Commission meetings, with minutes to be issued afterwards. Foreign travel by officers will require approval from the Commission. New IT modules and portals will first be examined by a committee of officers before being presented to the poll panel.
The Commission also ordered a review of ECINet by a committee headed by a senior Deputy Election Commissioner. An independent expert from an IIT or IIIT will be part of the review.
Field officers will receive additional flexibility where required, while directions issued by Commissioners to officers will be “meticulously complied with”.
These measures correspond closely with concerns earlier recorded by Sandhu and Joshi regarding meeting procedures, foreign travel, IT systems and access to electoral-roll databases.
Goa voter issue
The Commission also addressed the case of 97 voters in Goa who, according to The Indian Express investigation, had been cleared by local officials but were missing from the final electoral roll.
The ECI said 81 of these voters have since submitted Form 6 and directed the Chief Electoral Officer (CEC) to facilitate their inclusion.
What happens to Form 6?
The changes around Form 6 remain less clear.
The ECI said the form prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules would apply outside the SIR period, reflecting the substance of Joshi’s May objection. However, his objection had specifically concerned the online ECINet form, where an additional question about an applicant’s parents appeared between sections J and K and prevented applicants from proceeding without answering it.
The latest note does not clarify whether that online question has been removed.
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Questions that remain unanswered
Several issues remain unresolved. The Commission has not explained who authorised appeals against voters whose inclusion had been ordered by judicial officers in West Bengal.
It has also not clarified why Goa’s requested software facility for restoring voter names was not enabled, or addressed questions surrounding the roles of DG (IT) Seema Khanna and Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg.
The larger issue is how these decisions will change the Commission’s internal functioning. Whether the three Commissioners will now be involved more closely in decisions remains to be seen.