Cabinet Secretary didn’t act on EC’ plaint as it was unofficial: RTI
The Indian Cabinet Secretariat refused to intervene in an internal dispute regarding work allocation within the Election Commission of India. Officials cited the commission's status as an independent constitutional body as the reason for their non-interference.
Why it matters
This highlights the institutional independence of the Election Commission and the limits of executive authority over constitutional bodies in India.
NEW DELHI: After election commissioners S S Sandhu and Vivek Joshi wrote to cabinet secretary T V Somanathan in July objecting to the revised allocation of work among senior commission officers by senior deputy election commissioner Maneesh Garg without the EC approval, the cabinet secretariat refused to intervene, saying the communication was not from EC as a whole, and also cited poll panel’s status as a constitutional body that was independent of executive and empowered to conduct its own affairs.According to documents shared as part of an RTI response, two ECs in their separate but near-identical letters to Somanathan on July 29 objected to Garg’s conduct and an order he issued revising allocation of work among senior officers.
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