Plea before Supreme Court seeks expert committee headed by former CJI to examine ECI's functioning

A public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking constitution of an independent expert committee, chaired by a former Chief Justice of India or a former judge of the top court, to examine institutional shortcomings in the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The plea, filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari, has also sought directions to the ECI to enforce an "absolute prohibition" on election campaigning using religious tags, religious symbols, communal appeals, sectarian identity or hate speech.

The petition states that it is intended to be non-partisan and prospective and that the petitioner is not seeking a finding against any political party or office-holder, nor does it challenge the result of any election.

It relies on a September 23 report by The Indian Express that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded written objections on at least 14 occasions over ten months regarding unilateral decisions taken by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

As per the petition, these objections pertained to unauthorized alterations to statutory Form 6, centralisation of the electoral database, unapproved appeal filings in West Bengal, and work allocation orders.

The ECI, the plea says, acknowledged the dissenting notes but described them as routine suggestions, without clarifying who authorised the changes to Form 6.

The plea has also flagged the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal. Citing media reports of an ECI affidavit, it states that approximately 38.20 lakh appeals had been filed by persons excluded from electoral rolls of which only around 1.02 lakh have been disposed off. The ECI reportedly sought an increase in appellate tribunals from 19 to 42.

Another report cited in the plea states that 2,70,313 electors in Maharashtra's draft electoral roll were shown as aged between 101 and 150 years due to a default birth year glitch.

Hence, the ECI's shortcomings should be examined by a committee of experts.

The proposed committee, as per the plea, should include experts in constitutional law, election administration, statistics, technology, cybersecurity and data protection.