Only urgent issues to be referred to EC: Cabinet Secretariat

With ministries routinely referring to the Election Commission notes and proposals they wish the Cabinet to take up, the Cabinet Secretariat has ordered that only proposals requiring urgent decisions should be routed to the poll watchdog through it.

The directive came after the Election Commission complained about ministries and departments directly seeking clarification on the applicability of the Model Code of Conduct on proposals and issues they want the Cabinet to take up.

Sources said ministries and departments have now been told that such references should be made to the poll watchdog only through the Cabinet Secretariat.

Only proposals that require urgent or early consideration by the Cabinet or any of the Cabinet Committees would now be sent to the Election Commission for approval, they said, adding that routine decisions can wait for the new government to take charge next month after the general elections.

Ministries and departments have also been asked to examine if the decisions they are seeking require EC clearance.

They will then have to justify to the Cabinet Secretariat the urgency of the issue in a "self-contained but succinct/brief reference" with detailed justification for taking up the matter with the Election Commission, including the grounds of urgency.

The Election Commission had on March 20 written to the Cabinet Secretary that, "in spite of the guidelines, the references from central government are being directly received in the Commission without routing through the Cabinet Secretariat."

"Further, departments, sub-departments, public sector undertakings, autonomous bodies of the ministry/department are also forwarding references to the Election Commission directly. As a result, innumerable references are pouring in, including those cases which have no urgency and which can wait till elections are over," the poll panel had said.

The poll watchdog had desired that only such references where there is doubt over whether the issues are covered under the existing instructions of the Commission should be referred to it.