New Delhi: A furore has been broken out in the Election Commission of India (ECI) as the two of the three members submitted dissenting voted remarks time and again against issues that arose during the electoral rolls nationwide revision.
According to The Indian Express, the Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raised at least 14 objections in the last ten months on the decisions that are tied to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Their concerns included being left uninformed, the addition and deletion of voters, and the centralisation of access to the voter database. These protests were directed against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Cabinet Secretary in some cases.
Both commissioners said several of the moves were ‘unauthorised and illegal’, particularly the changes to the voter registration application, Form 6, and the centralisation of the electoral roll database. They also asked whether the IT Director General had the powers to allow or deny access to the activists of statutory offices and raised the issue of eligible voters in Goa being denied access due to software restrictions. The written objections are from the time of November 2025 to August 2026. In May 2026, Joshi made it known on the record that she opposed the proposed amendment to Form 6.
This is a big game. The SIR took off in Bihar in June 2025 and since then has resulted in the removal of over 13 crore names in 30 states and U.T.s. Concerns also cropped up for ECINet, the Commission’s centralised technology backbone, in scenarios where local election authorities were not able to enter their decisions in ECINet.
The Commission replied on Wednesday. It said this is a regular procedure in the poll panel to have written notes, observations, technical suggestions and checks and balances. All of its acts have been done according to the law and its instructions, and different opinions, while debating, are a normal trait of decision making, it added.
This was not convincing enough for the Opposition. Parties termed Kumar as ‘one-man autocracy’ and called for his ouster. Congress leaders and others demanded investigation, impeachment to be overseen by Supreme Court.
The episode has also raised doubts over the effectiveness of the three-member panel when two members are on the record against the chief. If the findings of problems in the electoral rolls at the time of polls are serious, it can be brought to the notice before the law, through the procedure which is available in the law, said Supreme Court lawyer, Sanjay Hegde. An IT expert quoted by The Federal has stated that the technology questions are important as electoral databases could potentially be combined with other databases, and centralised systems could be used to run rules on millions of records.
Ever since Kumar came into the job, his stay has been a matter of controversy. Rahul Gandhi submitted a dissent note against the selection of Kumar as CEC, arguing that the Chief Justice of India be not included in the selection panel. The day after Kumar was appointed CEC, Joshi was appointed as Election Commissioner.
The government has so far not responded to the demand for Kumar’s removal. The Opposition is likely to continue its campaign on the matter, including in court.
