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CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
The Election Commission has filed its reply in the Supreme Court to the petition on how the three-member Commission functions.
27 pages, approved by all three members. Its argument: every decision was unanimous, and a Commissioner’s note is a “suggestion,” not a decision.
Here’s what it addresses, and what it doesn’t.
🧵 (1/10)
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
Kudos to u @RitikaChopra__ congrats once again !
In September, @IndianExpress' investigation revealed that two Election Commissioners had written separately to the Cabinet Secretary seeking action against a senior officer inside the EC.
What happened to those letters is now on record.
File notings obtained under RTI by Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd) show the Cabinet Secretariat discussed the letters on August 3 & 4, then decided to do nothing beyond acknowledging them.
The reasoning? Sandhu and Joshi had written in their individual capacity, not as the Commission.
“In the absence of any official communication from the Commission as a whole, any action at this stage may be inappropriate. It may also be construed as interference in the functioning of the Constitutional Body.”
The Commission, as our investigation has shown, had not met as a full body for FOUR months.
indianexpress.com/article/in… via @IndianExpress
True
In September, @IndianExpress' investigation revealed that two Election Commissioners had written separately to the Cabinet Secretary seeking action against a senior officer inside the EC.
What happened to those letters is now on record.
File notings obtained under RTI by Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd) show the Cabinet Secretariat discussed the letters on August 3 & 4, then decided to do nothing beyond acknowledging them.
The reasoning? Sandhu and Joshi had written in their individual capacity, not as the Commission.
“In the absence of any official communication from the Commission as a whole, any action at this stage may be inappropriate. It may also be construed as interference in the functioning of the Constitutional Body.”
The Commission, as our investigation has shown, had not met as a full body for FOUR months.
indianexpress.com/article/in… via @IndianExpress
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
IMPORTANT: who will fix accountability for the @ECISVEEP when things have gone wrong asks @AshokLavasa .
"It is a challenge to the entire system as to who will break this stalemate." Former Election Commissioner @AshokLavasa raises a difficult question over accountability within the EC. If controversial decisions are rolled back but responsibility remains unfixed, who has the authority, and the will, to ensure that answers are provided?
#ElectionCommission #ECI #SupremeCourt #IndianPolitics #CabinetSecretary #NewsToday | @sardesairajdeep
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
‘The 14 objections that were made by the other ECs in last year must be made public in the national interest,’ argues @DrSYQuraishi as he calls for a JOINT presser of all ECs to clear the air.
"Absolutely. It's such a national issue, and we must know what happened." @DrSYQuraishi insists that the reported objections raised by two Election Commissioners must be made public. His argument is straightforward: when electoral decisions affect citizens’ voting rights and are subsequently rolled back, transparency is not optional. The public deserves to know how those decisions were made.
#ElectionCommission #ECI #IndianPolitics #NewsToday | @sardesairajdeep
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
“INSPACE head made some statements that alarmed the space community – I wrote to the PM about ISRO’s unique structure and why it should not be disturbed” former chairman Dr Madhavan Nair tells @indulekha_a .
Full interview here: youtu.be/3ngStpXuQ9I
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
Dear Modi ji, what is this obsession with Bonds? First, Electoral Bonds and now Peace Bonds. Your government cannot silence the voice of the people by making them sign peace bonds. Protesting peacefully against injustice is not only our fundamental right, it is also our duty. We will continue to protest till the unjust SIR is scrapped and till CEC Gyanesh Kumar resigns.
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
‘I disagree with every word of the former ECs.. the SIR was long overdue and should have happened much earlier..’ says @GVLNRAO
Is SIR a long-overdue electoral clean-up—or a process that has raised serious questions about voters’ rights? Former Rajya Sabha MP @Gvlrao argues that India went more than two decades without an intensive revision of electoral rolls. Former election officials, however, are demanding accountability for the decisions and changes made during the exercise. The debate is now about both necessity and execution.
#GVLNarasimhaRao #ElectionCommission #VoterList #ElectoralRolls #NewsToday | @sardesairajdeep
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
चुनाव आयोग के दो आयुक्तों की शिकायतों पर कार्रवाई क्यों नहीं हुई? RTI से सामने आई अंदरूनी कहानी.
यूपी के पीलीभीत में 10,470 वोटर एंट्रीज में गड़बड़ी और दिल्ली में SIR के खिलाफ प्रदर्शन.
उधर, अरुणाचल में चीन से तनाव के बीच ITBP के पुराने हथियारों और नई चुनौतियों पर भी सवाल.
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
In September, @IndianExpress' investigation revealed that two Election Commissioners had written separately to the Cabinet Secretary seeking action against a senior officer inside the EC.
What happened to those letters is now on record.
File notings obtained under RTI by Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd) show the Cabinet Secretariat discussed the letters on August 3 & 4, then decided to do nothing beyond acknowledging them.
The reasoning? Sandhu and Joshi had written in their individual capacity, not as the Commission.
“In the absence of any official communication from the Commission as a whole, any action at this stage may be inappropriate. It may also be construed as interference in the functioning of the Constitutional Body.”
The Commission, as our investigation has shown, had not met as a full body for FOUR months.
indianexpress.com/article/in… via @IndianExpress
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
Days after two ECs, S.S. Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, wrote to Cabinet Secretary T.V. Somanathan on July 29 regarding the working of Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg, the secretariat sent an acknowledgment to both, with a copy to CEC Gyanesh Kumar for his “information”, an RTI response has revealed, @sreeparna_c reports.
thehindu.com/news/national/c…
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
🚨 New Revelation on Election Commission Rift🚨
Weeks after The Indian Express reported that Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu had written to the Cabinet Secretary raising concerns over the unilateral functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI), a Right to Information (RTI) response has revealed the Cabinet Secretary’s position on the matter.
The RTI response, obtained by transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd), shows that the Cabinet Secretary acknowledged the Commissioners’ complaints but decided against direct intervention, citing that the letters written by the two commissioners were written in their "individual capacity" and not as the Commission, and that it would be inappropriate for the "executive to interfere in an independent Constitutional body."
According to the response, the two Commissioners wrote to Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan in July 2026, alleging that senior Election Commission official Maneesh Garg had bypassed established procedures and issued orders reallocating responsibilities among senior officers without consulting the Commission.
The RTI response also included copies of the letters written by the two Commissioners and the Cabinet Secretary’s acknowledgement of them.
The RTI application was filed a day after The Indian Express published a report on 23 September stating that Sandhu and Joshi had raised objections on at least 14 occasions over 10 months to decisions concerning the addition and deletion of voters.
The report also mentioned that the Commissioners had approached the Cabinet Secretary.
Read the full report by @hey_eshwar here:
thequint.com/news/politics/e…
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
As a follow up to @IndianExpress story on ‘CEC vs ECs’, official documents accessed by RTI Activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd) sheds more light on the issue.
Election Commissioners Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr Vivek Joshi wrote to Union Cabinet Secretary individually on the issue of change in ‘work allocation order’ by Maneesh Garg, Sr Deputy Election Commissioner on July 29.
Cabinet Secretariat decided to seek the opinion of the CEC Gyanesh Kumar on Aug 3. (No information on whether CEC responded to the Cabinet Secretariat).
Union Cabinet Secretary, TV Somanathan acknowledged the letters of the two ECs Dr SS Sandhu and Dr Vivek Joshi on Aug 5.
On Aug 24, Sanjay Kumar, Deputy Election Commissioner was moved out of ECI while the two Election Commissioners complained against Maneesh Garg.
Importantly, Sanjay Kumar was handling the ‘Electoral Roll’ division in ECI before he was moved out of ECI.
The officer handling the ‘Electoral Roll’ division was moved out of ECI in the middle of SIR’ exercise.
A cracker of a story by @RitikaChopra__
Days after two Elections Commissioners wrote (July 29) to Cabinet Secretary over the functioning of the Commission, two Deputy Election Commissioners moved out of the ECI.
Gyanesh Bharti on Aug 10 (Andaman CS) and Sanjay Kumar on Aug 28.
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
LATE NIGHT BREAKING: ‘Ram Ne Sharma Ko Mara’ as a voter’s father, ‘B Com’ as another’s! Bizarre entries surface in UP’s Graduates’ voter roll. CEO Navdeep Rinwa flags prima facie irregularities, seeks report from Jhansi Commissioner by Thursday.
Voters Can File Private Complaints Against Candidates For False Affidavits Under S. 125A Of RP Act: Supreme Court
livelaw.in/top-stories/voter…
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
This is open and shut case of gross illegality! No defence for the EC here. Casts a huge shadow on Bengal elections which must be reviewed.
The ECI Software Deleted 5.38 Lakh Bengal Voters With Auto-Generated Rejections Without Citing a Reason m.thewire.in/article/rights/…
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
There is no way Gyanesh and gang can be allowed to continue running the ECI and hold polls.
Impact of good Journalism.
As the Election Commission launches a special drive in 20 states to bring back voters “left out” in the SIR, its officers are staring at a unique problem: persuading lakhs, possibly crores, of people to fill Form 6, the “Application Form for New Voters,” which asks them to declare they are applying “for the first time.”
Form 6 is the right route back, and officials say signing it invites no legal action. But people who’ve voted for decades balk at calling themselves new, and many believe the declaration is false.
Against that backdrop, Maharashtra’s CEO has proposed a fix: drop “New Voters” from the title, and let the deleted say they were enrolled before and cite their old EPIC number.
Break by @vallabhozarkarr
indianexpress.com/article/in… via @IndianExpress
Agree. Check out the facts.
It is important to go back to the evidence of vote chori brought by @RahulGandhi last year September to November as it was the most painstakingly researched findings from the physical voters list. Now that Gyanesh is caught with pants down it is important to revisit the evidence provided by RG for Karnataka , Haryana and Maharashtra. We owe this to our electoral democracy and the people who exercise their most precious right.
CommodoreLokeshBatra retweeted
It is important to go back to the evidence of vote chori brought by @RahulGandhi last year September to November as it was the most painstakingly researched findings from the physical voters list. Now that Gyanesh is caught with pants down it is important to revisit the evidence provided by RG for Karnataka , Haryana and Maharashtra. We owe this to our electoral democracy and the people who exercise their most precious right.