Suspend SIR till the air is cleared
The Supreme Court will hear a plea challenging Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's authority and decisions. The petition questions whether the Election Commission acted collectively with its three-member panel. Reports indicate that two co...
By ET Bureau |
ET Bureau
Concerns have emerged regarding the credibility and trustworthiness of the electoral process, prompting calls for a pause in the SIR exercise. (Representative Image)
Supreme Court's decision on Tuesday to hear a plea next week challenging CEC Gyanesh Kumar's functioning, and, by extension, questions surrounding SIR, is welcome. The plea essentially asks CEC to explain under what authority he acted - and continues to be in a position to act - as if entitled individually to make decisions vested in EC as a body by Article 324 of the Constitution.
The top court's decision is important, not because any allegations have been established, but because they concern the way an institution entrusted with determining who can vote has taken decisions. The petition raises questions over whether the 3-member poll panel acted collectively, while reports that the two other commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, raised 14 objections to decisions taken in EC's name add weight to the case for judicial scrutiny. EC has maintained that its decisions on SIR were 'unanimous'. The court's intervention should help establish whether the commission's decision-making followed due process.
Read more: Election Commission-SIR controversy: Allegations and poll panel's responses
At stake is the serious matter of trust and trustworthiness - the former possible even when not warranted for, while the latter being action that earns trust. What is at stake here is whether processes and procedures of SIR enumeration have been maintained.
So, it stands to reason that the SIR exercise be put on hold till the air is cleared. This isn't an argument against updating electoral rolls. It's an argument that the cleaning must itself be demonstrably clean. Much like FSSAI's crackdown on food hygiene, electoral enumeration requires perceptible process hygiene.
Suspending SIR is not enough. There is also the question of restoring credibility of a constitutional body that prides itself on ensuring that the last eligible person finds his or her name on the electoral roll. For that, CEC Kumar should step aside. This is not about assigning guilt before any court ruling. It's about recognising that when so much doubt has gathered around EC's functioning, the buck stops at the CEC's door in Nirvachan Sadan.
The top court's decision is important, not because any allegations have been established, but because they concern the way an institution entrusted with determining who can vote has taken decisions. The petition raises questions over whether the 3-member poll panel acted collectively, while reports that the two other commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, raised 14 objections to decisions taken in EC's name add weight to the case for judicial scrutiny. EC has maintained that its decisions on SIR were 'unanimous'. The court's intervention should help establish whether the commission's decision-making followed due process.
Read more: Election Commission-SIR controversy: Allegations and poll panel's responses
At stake is the serious matter of trust and trustworthiness - the former possible even when not warranted for, while the latter being action that earns trust. What is at stake here is whether processes and procedures of SIR enumeration have been maintained.
So, it stands to reason that the SIR exercise be put on hold till the air is cleared. This isn't an argument against updating electoral rolls. It's an argument that the cleaning must itself be demonstrably clean. Much like FSSAI's crackdown on food hygiene, electoral enumeration requires perceptible process hygiene.
Suspending SIR is not enough. There is also the question of restoring credibility of a constitutional body that prides itself on ensuring that the last eligible person finds his or her name on the electoral roll. For that, CEC Kumar should step aside. This is not about assigning guilt before any court ruling. It's about recognising that when so much doubt has gathered around EC's functioning, the buck stops at the CEC's door in Nirvachan Sadan.
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