The Centre on Saturday attempted to clear the air over its meeting with the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners that has kicked off a controversy. It stated that the interaction was an informal one meant for ironing out some aspects for the final proposal for legislative amendments pertaining to issues such as number of qualifying dates for updation of the electoral roll and linking of voter ID with Aadhaar.
The Ministry of Law and Justice, in a press communique, also stated that the communication from the Prime Minister's Office about holding a meeting on the Common Electoral Roll was addressed to the Cabinet Secretary, the Law Secretary and the Secretary, Legislative Department, and it was not addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner.
The clarification came in the wake of questions being raised about the propriety of Election Commissioners attending a meeting convened by the government and the criticism that this reflected badly on both the government and the commission with regard to the autonomy of the poll panel.
In a press communique, the Law and Justice Ministry said that several proposals of the poll panel regarding electoral reforms had been pending for a long time. The CEC, it said, had addressed several letters to the Union law minister stressing that the pending reforms be considered expeditiously.
It was stated that the Legislative Department of the ministry is the nodal department regarding matters related to the commission and regular interaction takes place between officials of the poll body and the department.
“Previously, several meetings were held by the Cabinet Secretary and the PMO regarding Common Electoral roll. The PMO ID dated 12.11.2021 regarding a meeting on Common Electoral Roll to be held on 16.11.2021 was addressed to the Cabinet Secretary, Law Secretary and Secretary, Legislative Department. It was not addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner,” the ministry said.
It said that since the Election Commission has the necessary expertise and mandate regarding electoral roll and in the light of the previous letters of the CEC addressed to the Law Minister, Secretary, Legislative Department thought it appropriate to invite officials of Election Commission to this meeting.
“Accordingly, Under Secretary, Legislative Department sent a letter No F. No.H-11021/6/2020-Leg.2 dated 15.11.2021 to the Secretary, Election Commission of India (ECI) to attend the meeting on 16.11.2021. The letter was addressed to Secretary and the final operative paragraph of the letter also requested Secretary, Election Commission of India to attend the meeting,” it was stated.
According to the press communique, after receipt of the letter by the ECI, the CEC spoke to Secretary, Legislative Department expressing his displeasure over the expression in the middle part of the letter which gave an impression that it was expected of the CEC to attend the meeting. It said that Secretary, Legislative Department clarified that the letter was for Secretary or a representative of the CEC familiar with the subject to attend the meeting.
“This meeting on 16.11.2021 was a virtual meeting and no physical meeting was organised in the PMO. The said virtual meeting was attended by the Officials of Government of India and officials of Election Commission of India. After the meeting of Officials, certain issues required further fine-tuning. These issues include the number of qualifying dates for updation of electoral roll, some aspects of Aadhaar linkage and requisition of premises,” it said.
As per the Centre's clarification, after the official meeting, a separate informal interaction was held virtually with CEC Sushil Chandra and the two Election Commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey. “It may be noted that the discussion was held together with all three Commissioners of ECI, and virtually,” the statement read.
It was stated that subsequent to these deliberations with the Commission, a proposal was drafted by the Legislative Department which was placed for consideration before the Union Cabinet that has approved proposal for introducing “The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 during the current session of the Parliament.
“It is reiterated that the Legislative Department organises meetings with officers of the Election Commission and other relevant government departments in matters related to electoral reforms,” it was stated.
The meeting of 16.11.2021, the statement clarified, was to finalise the cabinet note on some of the reforms and it was held virtually. “The subsequent interaction with the Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners was an informal one and meant for ironing out two or three aspects for the final proposal,” it said.
