A day after a controversy erupted over the Election Commission of India being asked to attend a meeting with the Prime Minister’s Office, the Law Ministry on Saturday said the meeting in November was meant for the Secretary or representative of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and not the CEC himself.
The Ministry said several proposals of the ECI regarding electoral reforms had been pending for long and the CECs had written to the Law Minister several times since 2011 asking the matter to be considered.
“Legislative Department is the nodal Department regarding matters related to Election Commission and regular interaction takes place between officials of ECI and Legislative Department. Previously, several meetings were held by the Cabinet Secretary and the PMO regarding common electoral roll,” the Ministry said.
The PMO had written to the Cabinet Secretary, the Law Secretary and the Legislative Department Secretary on November 12 regarding the meeting on the common electoral roll to be held on November 16.
“It was not addressed to the [CEC]. Since [ECI] has the necessary expertise and mandate regarding electoral roll and in the light of the previous letters of the [CEC] addressed to the Law Minister, Secretary, Legislative Department thought it appropriate to invite officials of Election Commission to this meeting,” it said.
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The Under Secretary, Legislative Department, on November 15 wrote to the Secretary, ECI, regarding the meeting.
“The letter was addressed to Secretary and the final operative paragraph of the letter also requested Secretary, [ECI] to attend the meeting. After receipt of the letter by the ECI, the [CEC] spoke to Secretary, Legislative Department, expressing his displeasure over the expression in the middle part of the letter which gave an impression that it was expected of the CEC to attend the meeting. Secretary, Legislative Department, clarified that the letter was for Secretary or a representative of the CEC familiar with the subject to attend the meeting,” the Ministry said.
The meeting was held virtually and officials of the Centre and the ECI attended it, the Ministry said.
“After the meeting of officials, certain issues required further fine-tuning. These issues include the number of qualifying dates for updation of electoral roll, some aspects of Aadhaar linkage and requisition of premises. After the official meeting, a separate informal interaction was held virtually with the [CEC] and the two Election Commissioners. It may be noted that the discussion was held together with all three Commissioners of ECI, and virtually,” the Ministry said.
It said these deliberations led to the proposal by the Legislative Department, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, being placed before the Cabinet, which approved it for introduction in the ongoing session of Parliament.
“It is reiterated that the Legislative Department organises meetings with officers of the Election Commission and other relevant government departments in matters related to electoral reforms. The meeting of 16.11.2021 was to finalise the Cabinet note on some of the reforms and it was held virtually. The subsequent interaction with the [CEC] and two Election Commissioners was an informal one and meant for ironing out two or three aspects for the final proposal,” it said.
