2 ECs complained against poll panel officer, but Cabinet Secretariat took no action: RTI
The Cabinet Secretariat declined to act on complaints filed by two Election Commissioners against a senior official, citing that the complaints were made in an individual capacity. The dispute centers on work allocation orders issued by the official that were allegedly implemented without proper Commission approval.
Why it matters
This highlights internal administrative friction within India's constitutional bodies and raises questions about the oversight of officials appointed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.
NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Secretariat did not take any action on complaints filed by two election commissioners against an officer in the Election Commission, saying the letters were written in their “individual capacity” and did not represent the poll panel as a whole, according to documents released in response to an RTI application.Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had separately written to Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan on July 29, raising concerns about the conduct of senior deputy election commissioner Maneesh Garg, an IAS officer appointed to the Commission by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on September 2, 2024.The letters were provided in an RTI response to activist Commodore Lokesh K Batra (retd).The Indian Express had reported in September that the two Election Commissioners approached the Cabinet Secretary after Garg issued a work allocation order that they believed could concentrate powers over changes to voter records…
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