CEC, ECs interacted with PM's Office after Law Ministry note: Report

Meeting allegedly raises questions of propriety and was held despite creating a flutter in the commission about the ministry's note.

The three top officials of the Election Commission joined an online “informal interaction” called by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on November 16 despite expressing reservations, the Indian Express reported on Friday, raising questions of propriety about the executive branch’s relationship with a constitutional body.

Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and the two Election Commissioners, Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey joined the meeting a day after the Commission received an letter from an official of the Law Ministry saying P K Mishra, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, will “chair a meeting” on a common electoral roll and “expects CEC” to be present. Law is the administrative ministry of the commission.

At two previous meetings on the same subject on August 13 and September 3 last year, Election Commission officials took part and not the Commissioners.

Chandra and the two Election Commissioners had an “informal interaction” with Mishra later—after the Chief Election Commissioner expressed his “displeasure” to the Law Ministry about its note.

The note caused a flutter in the Election Commission as it read like a “summons” that breached precedent and Constitutional norms, said a source to the newspaper.

Express said Chandra was unavailable for comment and a Law Ministry official refused to comment. The full bench of the Election Commission was in Chandigarh on Thursday to review preparations for assembly elections in the state next year.