>"The effectiveness of the Election Commission as the custodian of free and fair elections depends on the trust it elicits from the public. Any instance that is likely to erode the public trust in its functioning needs to be looked into at the earliest. In order to make sure that the Commission has been functioning in an apolitical, independent manner so as to maintain its public credibility, we would respectfully appeal to your high office to order a judicial enquiry to determine the factual position with respect to the questions posed above and the corrective action needed." ------------------------ By: Prof Jagdeep Chhokar and Dr E A S Sarma Published in:* Countercurrents.org* Dae: April 20, 2025 Source: https://countercurrents.org/2025/08/appeal-to-president-of-india-to-enquire-into-the-impartiality-of-the-election-commission/ Appeal to the Respected Rashtrapati Ji to order a judicial enquiry into how machine-readable, text-searchable formats of Electoral Rolls are accessible to some but not accessible to others and to enquire into whether the Election Commission’s functioning has been impartial
To Smt Droupadi Murmu President of India Rashtrapati Bhawan Respected Rashtrapati Ji, In recent times, several opposition parties have voiced concerns about large-scale fraudulent inclusions/ deletions of voters’s names in electoral rolls and the existence of duplicate Electronic Photo Identity Cards (EPICs). It was the West Bengal government that initially pointed out the existence of duplicate EPIC Cards ( https://www.business-standard.com/politics/election-commission-has-admitted-guilt-over-duplicate-epic-numbers-tmc-125030701010_1.html ) Prior to Delhi elections, a respected AAP legislator cited specific instances of possible fraud in the Electoral Rolls of Delhi ( https://youtu.be/Sa1FxRDXA8U), on which, to the best of our knowledge, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had not meaningfully responded, causing public concern. One of the concerns expressed by several political parties has been that the ECI has not agreed to provide them Electoral Rolls in a *“machine-readable, text-searchable*” format to enable them to cross-verify quickly, erroneous inclusions/ deletions of voters’ names and the existence of duplicate EPIC cards. The Commission appears to have taken a firm stand that it would not provide Electoral Rolls in that format on account of cyber-security concerns. In support of that contention, the Commission had cited a 2019 judgement of the apex court. When the Leader of Opposition (LOP) held a press conference on 7-8-2025 to highlight the possibility of fraud in the preparation of the Electoral Rolls of Mahadevapura Constituency in Karnataka, he specifically mentioned that, in the absence of a text-searchable version of the Electoral Roll, his team was forced to work hard for six months to examine the hard copy of the Electoral Roll to detect erroneous entries. As soon as the LOP raised the above cited concern, the Karnataka Chief Election Officer was reported to have promptly issued a notice to him to submit a sworn affidavit to substantiate his claim. ( https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/what-are-the-challenges-confronting-the-ec-explained/article69941539.ece ). Later, it was reported that the Election Commission itself had asked the LOP to substantiate his claim on the basis of a sworn statement or, if he failed to do so, that he should apologise. Soon after the above, there were reports that another honourable Member of the Parliament belonging to the ruling party held yet another press conference in which he had pointed out serious discrepancies in the Electoral Rolls of several Parliamentary Constituencies including Rae Bareli, Wayanad, Diamond Harbour, Kannauj, Mainpuri and in Kolathur Assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu ( https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/after-every-defeat-congress-kept-finding-new-excuses-bjp-on-rahul-gandhis-vote-theft-claim/article69927820.ece ) These allegations and counter allegations do not provide comfort to onlooking citizens like us, as they tend to raise serious questions about the integrity of Electoral Rolls in general and about the efficacy and impartiality of the machinery involved in the preparation of Electoral Rolls. More importantly, they raise concerns about the role of the Election Commission itself, as the latter set up under Article 324 of the Constitution, has the responsibility to conduct elections in a free and fair manner. Irrespective of the election machinery that is directly involved in preparing Electoral Rolls, the Election Commission as the overarching authority, cannot absolve itself of the shortcomings in the preparation of Electoral Rolls, which constitute the primary foundation on which our democratic system rests. The name of no eligible voter should be excluded from the Electoral Roll for the constituency in which he resides. In principle, we see no valid reason as to why the Election Commission, with all the resources at its command, cannot and should not, on its own, consider all such complaints as a part of the much-needed feedback system it ought to put in place, to detect errors and correct them. The LOP, or for that matter anyone similarly placed, who has presented his/her analysis on the basis of authentic data obtained from the Commission itself, cannot be expected to authenticate that data. Even assuming that the Commission, for an extraordinary reason, has arrogated to itself the authority to demand a complainant to support his/ her claim with a sworn affidavit, there is no evidence that the same Commission has similarly demanded that the other honourable Member of the Parliament who had also raised similar concerns in the case of five Parliamentary Constituencies should also submit a sworn affidavit with his complaint. There cannot be one law for one complainant and another for another complainant! There are other important questions that arise from this: According to the news report ( https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/what-are-the-challenges-confronting-the-ec-explained/article69941539.ece ), in the absence of a text-searchable format of the Electoral Roll, LOP’s team had to spend six long months to analyse the occurrence of errors in the Electoral Roll of one constituency, whereas, in the second case, the concerned Member of the Parliament seemed to to have got a similar analysis carried out in the case of five Parliamentary Constituencies plus one State Legislative Assembly Constituency, evidently within a very short time, with no notice whatsoever issued to him by any of the concerned Chief Election Officers that he should submit a sworn affidavit to substantiate his claim. Does it imply that the same Commission, that took a firm stand on not providing text-searchable versions of Electoral Rolls in general, had made an exception in the second case? Or, did the respected Member in the second-cited case had obtained non-text-searchable Electoral Rolls of all those constituencies a long time ago, got them diligently analysed for months and come up with several errors detected? Some investigative reporters ( https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/5-000-dubious-voters-from-up-make-it-to-bihar-constituency & https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/bihar-eci-registered-80k-wrong-addresses-in-3-constituencies) seem to have contrived to use a software to convert non-text-searchable formats of Electoral rolls to text-searchable versions and carried out an excellent analysis to highlight large-scale errors in the ongoing Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. If that is feasible, why should the Commission continue to pretend that machine-readable versions raise cyber-security concerns? In view of the above considerations, especially in view of the instance of an apparent inconsistency in the Commission dealing with two different complaints, these instances raise public concerns about the role of the Election Commission itself and its impartiality. We cite in this connection, the apex court’s guidelines in a judgement delivered on March 2, 2023 (*Anoop Baranwal v Union of India <https://www.scobserver.in/cases/anoop-baranwal-v-union-of-india-election-commission-appointments-background/>)* on the composition of the Committee that selects the members of the Commission and how the political executive had deviated from those guidelines, which in effect has resulted in the members of the Commission having been selected by a Committee dominated by the executive. That in itself has raised public concerns about the impartiality of theCommission. The effectiveness of the Election Commission as the custodian of free and fair elections depends on the trust it elicits from the public. Any instance that is likely to erode the public trust in its functioning needs to be looked into at the earliest. In order to make sure that the Commission has been functioning in an apolitical, independent manner so as to maintain its public credibility, we would respectfully appeal to your high office to order a judicial enquiry to determine the factual position with respect to the questions posed above and the corrective action needed. Respectfully, Prof Jagdeep Chhokar, Former Professor of IIM (Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad) Dr E. A. S. Sarma, Former Secretary to the Government of India
