Citizens’ appeal to President seeks judicial enquiry into Election Commission’s impartiality

By A Representative

A group of 189 prominent citizens, including retired bureaucrats, academics, activists, journalists, and former parliamentarians, has written to President Droupadi Murmu urging her to order a judicial enquiry into the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI). The appeal questions whether the Commission has been impartial in maintaining the integrity of electoral rolls and election processes.

The signatories, among them former IIM professors Jagdeep Chhokar and Sebastian Morris, ex-Union Secretary E.A.S. Sarma, journalist Pamela Philipose, activist Teesta Setalvad, and former MP Jawhar Sircar, expressed deep concern over what they describe as large-scale irregularities in electoral rolls, malfunctioning of EVMs, duplicate voter identity cards, fraudulent voting, and unexplained discrepancies between provisional and final polling figures.

The appeal notes that a Citizens’ Commission on Elections, chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge, had as early as 2022 flagged serious flaws in the electoral process and recommended independent social audits. The ECI, it says, ignored those warnings and has since continued to dismiss or deflect concerns raised by political parties and civil society groups.

Citing specific incidents, the petition recalls how voters in Markadwadi, Maharashtra, were prevented from conducting a symbolic re-election using ballot papers after raising doubts over EVM results. It also points to the Commission’s 2023 amendment to election rules that blocked public access to CCTV footage of polling booths after a High Court ordered disclosure of such material in connection with the Haryana elections.

Other concerns include the Commission’s refusal to share machine-readable, text-searchable electoral rolls with political parties, despite allegations of fraudulent inclusions and deletions of voters. Opposition leaders in Delhi and Karnataka highlighted discrepancies in rolls, but instead of verifying complaints, the Commission sought affidavits and even demanded apologies. Meanwhile, a ruling party MP was able to cite similar irregularities in multiple constituencies without facing comparable scrutiny, raising questions of bias.

The petition further highlights how investigative journalists have already shown that errors can be detected by converting non-searchable electoral rolls into searchable formats, contradicting the Commission’s claim that such formats pose cybersecurity risks. It also draws attention to the absence of totaliser machines with EVMs, which makes booth-level voting patterns transparent to political actors and potentially manipulable.

The signatories argue that these issues, coupled with deviations from the Supreme Court’s 2023 guidelines on the independent selection of Election Commissioners, have eroded public confidence in the neutrality of the institution. They maintain that the very credibility of Indian democracy rests on the integrity of the electoral rolls and processes, and that the Commission cannot absolve itself of responsibility.

The letter concludes with a respectful appeal to the President to intervene by ordering a judicial enquiry into the Election Commission’s functioning so as to restore public trust and ensure free and fair elections.

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