An investigation by The Indian Express has reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders issued in the name of the Election Commission. The reported objections covered voter additions and deletions, restoration of names, Form 6, electoral-roll appeals and the handling of voter data. The report also says the two commissioners raised concerns over the centralisation of electoral-roll data and separately approached the Cabinet Secretary over changes involving IT infrastructure and database control.
The political opposition has attacked CEC Gyanesh Kumar, while former CEC O.P. Rawat described the reported differences as serious and questioned the reported changes to Form 6. The Election Commission, however, has rejected suggestions of a formal rift and maintained that final decisions, including those relating to SIR, were unanimous. So what do the reported objections reveal about the Election Commission's internal functioning, transparency and accountability?