‘SIR decisions unanimous’: EC backs decision-making process

EC says SIR decisions taken unanimously by full commission NEW DELHI: Election Commission asserted Saturday that the decisions regarding special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls were taken unanimously by chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and election commissioners S S Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.The statement came following the first meeting of the "full" Commission after a report in The Indian Express suggested the CEC disregarded the views of the two ECs on SIR-related calls, which sparked a political row, with the opposition targeting the govt and the CEC."The order for SIR issued on 24.6.2025 for all States/UTs, starting with Bihar, followed by West Bengal and 30 other States/UTs was issued with the unanimous approval of the Commission," the EC said.It also denied the claim that Sandhu and Joshi wrote to the Cabinet secretary to flag concerns over policy matters or IT processes.SIR has been implemented in 20 states and UTs and is under way in 12 others. The poll panel also refuted the claim that Sandhu and Joshi wrote separate letters to the cabinet secretary to flag their concerns about policy matters or processes adopted by EC's IT division over which they no longer had control. The letter was "related to the work of an officer on deputation to EC. The work re-distribution orders issued by the officer concerned were not actually implemented after the orders of the two commissioners and the oversight over the IT division by the DEC was never actually withdrawn," EC said.The report said Sandhu and Joshi had called the move "a clear violation" of the law that governs EC and sought action against senior DEC Maneesh Garg, and linked the commissioners' objections to field officers allegedly being locked out of ECINET making it a "centralised" software directly controlled by EC.The allegations linking the commissioners' objections to SIR and alleged lack of access to field officers to ECINET were seized upon by opposition to point their guns at the CEC. LoP Rahul Gandhi demanded he be imprisoned while opposition appeared set to seek his removal afresh. Saturday's full commission meeting and the statement issued later sought to fix this; it cleared the air point by point, besides conveying the message that the three members had resolved their internal issues.EC decided to concede on a slew of matters raised by the commissioners through internal notes, deciding that the agenda for all meetings shall henceforth be circulated in advance and the minutes issued. Also, annual performance appraisal reports of all officers would be completed by Dec 31 every year. The statement said all directions issued by the commissioners to the officers of the commission will be complied with and foreign trips for officers approved by the full commission.On opposition's claim of disenfranchisement of 13 crore voters in SIR, EC said the final figure of electors will be known only after final publication of the roll in the remaining 12 states of Phase 3. Bharti Jain is senior editor with The Times of India, New Delhi. She has been writing on security matters since 1996. Having covered the Union home ministry, security agencies, Election Commission and the ‘prime’ political beat, the Congress, for The Economic Times all these years, she moved to TOI in August 2012. Her repertoire of news stories delves into the whole gamut of issues related to terrorism and internal strife, besides probing strategic affairs in India’s neighbourhood.