NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has issued a fresh work allocation order that requires its top IT official Seema Khanna to route files through a senior deputy election commissioner.
The new order restores a layer of oversight an earlier order had removed.
An order dated July 28 had relieved Deputy Election Commissioner Sanjay Kumar of the charge of IT and ICT and let Director-General (IT) Seema Khanna report directly to the poll panel. The decision was put in abeyance after the two election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, objected.
The latest work allocation order, issued on Wednesday, requires Khanna to route files through Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Pawan Kumar Sharma.
According to the poll panel’s submission to the Supreme Court, the July 28 order was not implemented. The Commission said the internal distribution of work “has been continuing” under an earlier office order dated September 23, 2025.
It said the July 28 order was issued by an IAS officer who was on deputation to the Commission.
Sandhu and Joshi wrote separately to Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan on July 29, saying Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg issued the orders without the poll body’s approval.
A panel note, issued as per decisions of its meeting held on September 26 and carrying the approval of the full Election Commission, said the letter to the Cabinet Secretary “was not related to any policy matter of the Commission or IT division”.
It concerned the working of an officer on deputation to the EC, the note said. It clarified that the work re-distribution orders were “not actually implemented” after the objections of the two Commissioners, and the oversight over the IT division by the deputy election commissioner “was never actually withdrawn”.
