Election Commissioners raised complaint against senior panel officer, cabinet declined action, reveals RTI

A Right To Information (RTI) has revealed that two Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had written to Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan on July 9, 2024 about the alleged misconduct of senior deputy election commissioner (DEC) Maneesh Garg and sought action. The secretariat acknowledged both the complaints and sent a copy to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar for his “information”.

However, the Cabinet Secretary noted that the letters by the election commissioners were written in their individual capacities and though the complaint needed to be taken seriously, it could not be taken as a formal communication from the Election Commission of India as a whole.

The Cabinet Secretary further noted that since the complaints were written in their individual capacities, any action taken in this regard would amount to "interference".

The two Commissioners in their letters had alleged that revising the allocation of work among senior officers by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg, an IAS officer posted to the poll body by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) in September 2024, was without prior discussion with the Commission or the officers concerned.

What was the complaint?

In his letter to the Cabinet Secretary seeking action against Garg, Sandhu wrote, "This has happened in spite of repeated and explicit oral and written instructions to all concerned officers by the undersigned against taking such actions without prior discussion/approval of the Commission."

He alleged violation of Sections 18(1) and 18(2) of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, and sought "appropriate action".

Joshi too made a similar complaint but also alleged that he was denied the access to the relevant file when he sought it from the Administration Division.

The RTI response on the complaint raised by Sandhu and Joshi read, "Both the ECs have stated that Shri Garg, after assuming the charge as link officer of DEC (Admn), has issued an order regarding work allocation of equivalent and senior officers to him without discussing the revised work allocation with the Commission or the officers concerned. Further, the aforementioned ECs have stated that this has happened despite repeated oral and written instructions to all concerned officers against taking such actions without prior discussion/approval of the Commission,"