SIR row puts spotlight on past EC differences

The ongoing SIR (Special Intensive Revision) has highlighted past differences among election commissioners, bringing into focus two earlier instances where members of the poll authority held opposing views. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Ashok Lavasa, a former election commissioner, presented dissent notes on clean chits to top BJP leaders regarding alleged model code violations.

He requested that these dissent notes be included in the final published order, but his demand was rejected by the then Commission led by Sunil Arora, as executive orders do not have a provision for attaching dissent notes. Consequently, Lavasa resigned from the EC to join the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

In May 2021, Rajiv Kumar, later to become the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), tried to file a separate affidavit with the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court in defense of the poll body against a court observation. Kumar sought to file the affidavit, but his then colleague and CEC, Sushil Chandra, opposed the move. Their differences were brought to light, making headlines.

Currently, the EC is once again under scrutiny after Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi have raised concerns about various issues, including the deletion of voters in the ongoing special intensive revision of the voters' list.