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New Delhi: In its response to the investigation by The Indian Express revealing that two of three Election Commissioners objected formally at least 14 times on various decisions taken and orders issued without their knowledge in the last 10 months, the Election Commission has appeared to duck the most important concerns – not least of which is what happens to the 13 crore names deleted as part of the ECI’s special intensive revision of voter rolls.

As the Indian Express report notes, the controversial national rollout of the SIR has been under the supervision of all three Commissioners. Now, with the reported disagreement of Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi to some of the decisions made in the course of the SIR, there are serious worries over the legitimacy of the already fraught exercise.

In its press note, the ECI has repeated that it a constitutional body that functions under the strict mandate of Article 324 of the Constitution, statutory rules and established institutional conventions.

Noting that the Commission operates as a “multi-member constitutional body,” it claims that “written notes, observations, technical suggestions and internal checks-and-balances are standard, ongoing practices designed to ensure complete transparency, legal compliance and operational rigour.”

Without delving into the particulars of the formal objections reported by the newspaper, the ECI claims then, “All actions of ECI have been in accordance of laws........

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