KOLKATA: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday wrote a letter to the state chief secretary (CS) Nandini Chakraborty seeking explanations for taking disciplinary proceedings against two Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), without consulting the matter with the ECI.
Tathagata Mondal and Sudipta Das, against whom the disciplinary proceedings are taken, are West Bengal Civil Service Executives (WBCS).
Today’s ECI letter to Chakraborty is significant because some top bureaucrats at the state secretariat Nabanna, who were instrumental in taking disciplinary proceedings against the two AEROs Mondal and Das without any consultations with the ECI, must be answerable to the Commission, said a senior official at the WBCEO office.
The commission has sought a detailed report seeking to know about the roles of these bureaucrats.
The West Bengal government had informed the ECI saying, ‘one official, namely Sri Tathagata Mondal, AERO, 137-Baruipur Purba AC has been exonerated, and a minor penalty has been imposed on Sri Sudipta Das, AERO-206 Moyna AC.”
The Commission has rejected the disciplinary proceedings taken by the state government against the two WBCS officers.
“Since the disciplinary proceedings have been finalised without adherence to the prescribed procedure and without mandatory consultation with the Commission, the Commission does not accept such finalisation of disciplinary action. Accordingly, the same shall be treated as procedurally irregular and non est in the eyes of the Commission ….,” the letter written by the ECI secretary Sujeet Kumar Mishra stated.
On January 2, the national poll body had directed the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (WBCEO) Manoj Agarwal to ensure registrations of FIR with immediate affect against two Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), who are WBCS executives, two Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) and one casual data entry operator on charge of irregularities in connection with electoral-roll revisions in two Assembly constituencies – Baruipur Purba and Moyna – in South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore districts respectively in the state.
Mishra has asked Chakraborty, stating, “A written explanation shall be called for from the competent authority/officer responsible for the aforesaid procedural lapse, clearly explaining the circumstances that led to non-compliance with the Commission’s instructions.”
“In continuation of the Commission’s letter of even number dated 18.01.26, you are requested to furnish the complete disciplinary case records, including the articles of charge, written statements of defence, inquiry reports, findings of the inquiry authority, orders of the disciplinary authority, file noting and all other relevant records forming the basis of the disciplinary action taken, in respect of all the four officials namely Shri Tathagata Mondal, Shri Debottam Dutta Chowdhury, Shri Biplab Sarkar and Shri Sudipta Das,” the letter stated.
Earlier, on August 5, the ECI had directed the former chief secretary, Manoj Pant, to suspend the four government officials and subsequently lodge FIRs against them with the concerned police stations in the two districts.
Ignoring the directives of the national poll body, the Bengal government has not lodged any FIR so far against the officials, though it had suspended them. Recently, Nabanna has written to the ECI to consider the directives of filing FIRs against the officials.
Today’s fresh ECI letter to the CS renewed the clash between the Mamata Banerjee government and the national poll body in the poll-bound Bengal.
“…. the commission had directed that the aforesaid officials mentioned at Serial No I to iv be suspended and that the FIRs be lodged against all of them for their failure to perform statutory duties and for violating data security policies by sharing login credentials with unauthorised persons. It is observed that while the State Government has affected the suspensions of these officials on 20.08.2025, the direction regarding the registration of FIRs remains non-compliant till date,” according to a letter written by Mishra to Agarwal on 2 January.
“In view of the above, you are hereby directed to instruct the concerned District Election Officers to ensure immediate registration of FIRs against the aforesaid officials under Section 32 of the Representation of People Act, 1950 along with relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and the Information Technology Act, 2000, as applicable. You are requested to submit a compliance report regarding the registration of said FIRs to the Commission at the earliest,” the letter had stated.