In India, whenever the credibility and independence of the Election Commission is talked about, former Election Commissioner TN Seshan is remembered.
Seshan was the Chief Election Commissioner of India from December 1990 to December 1996. Seshan had said that the Election Commission belongs to India and not to the Government of India. Whenever a question is raised on the impartiality of the Election Commission in India, this comment of Seshan comes into discussion.
The Election Commission has been surrounded by controversies since last year's Bihar Assembly elections. The Election Commission had started SIR i.e. Special Intensive Revision for Bihar elections.
The Election Commission had called it a routine process. But under this process which started from Bihar, till now more than 13 crore names have been removed from the voter list. In such a situation, there is a heated debate on the role of the Election Commission that it is deciding the citizenship of Indians.
Regarding SIR, India's opposition parties also allege that the Modi government is getting the voter list prepared as per its wish through the Election Commission. The Modi government at the Center has been rejecting these allegations but now reports of alleged differences within the Election Commission have come to light in this matter.
According to the investigation of India's leading English newspaper Indian Express, questions were repeatedly raised regarding these issues even within the three-member Election Commission. These questions were not raised by anyone else, but by two election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
The Indian Express has written in its report, "The process of SIR is going on across the country under the supervision of the three Election Commissioners. But Sandhu and Joshi have filed formal objections to the records at least 14 times in the last 10 months. He says that many decisions and orders were taken and issued without his knowledge. On one of these days, such objections were lodged four times."
After this report, the Election Commission has shared a statement of eight points on X. In its fifth point, the Election Commission has said, "Ignoring the numerous approvals, decisions, instructions and initiatives taken during the last 10 months, emphasizing only certain internal notes or points does not reveal the complete picture."
“In recent months, the Commission has taken several decisions, issued directions, launched about 40 new initiatives and carried out several electoral reforms, including revamping of voter lists (including SIR) across the country. All these decisions have been taken with the consensus of the entire commission in the last one year."
According to the Indian Express report, two of the three election commissioners complained that they were being kept in the dark about the decisions. These also included decisions related to adding new voters and removing names from voter lists.
He described some of the steps taken to add new voters as 'unauthorized and illegal' and warned that state officials should not be bypassed by centralizing access to the voter database in Delhi.
The Election Commissioners, who expressed disagreement over concerns raised about the reliability of the software, also complained to the Cabinet Secretary.
This reflects an unprecedented rift within the Election Commission and raises serious questions about its functioning.
According to the Indian Express report, copies of the objections related to all these issues were also sent to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Some objections were also sent to the Deputy Election Commissioners who were monitoring the related work.
In a written objection, Sandhu complained that the Election Commission had acted against the written advice of two election commissioners and alleged that the commission's action was "unauthorized and illegal", reports Express.
All three election commissioners were appointed under the 2023 law during the tenure of the Modi government. The selection committee for appointment included the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
When Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar were appointed Election Commissioners in March 2024, Congress's Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, the opposition member in the committee, had registered his disagreement over the appointment process. In February 2025, when Gyanesh Kumar was made the Chief Election Commissioner and Vivek Joshi was appointed as the Election Commissioner, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had also registered his disagreement.
This is not the first time that disagreements within the Election Commission have become public in the Modi government. Earlier in May 2019, the then Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa had expressed disagreement with Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora.
In May 2019, the then Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa had demanded that dissent or minority opinion should also be recorded in the Election Commission's orders related to violation of the Model Code of Conduct. But the then Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora did not accept his demand.
In such a situation, on May 16, 2019, Lavasa had distanced himself from all the meetings related to violation of the Model Code of Conduct. He did this because his suggestion for speedy disposal of Model Code of Conduct complaints had not been acted upon and his minority opinion was not being recorded in the final orders of the Commission.
During the Lok Sabha elections, Lavasa had expressed disagreement on five occasions on the clean chit given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah on charges of violating the Model Code of Conduct.
On Ashok Lavasa's disagreement, the then Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had said that any disagreement among the Election Commissioners has mainly happened within the walls of the Election Commission and the three members are not expected to agree with each other exactly.
Arora had said, "It is always difficult to maintain the beauty of silence, but it is much more desirable because it is important to take the election process forward and not create controversy at the wrong time."
In January 2009, Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami had sent a recommendation to the President to remove Election Commissioner Naveen Chawla from the post.
This step of the then Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami naturally gave rise to a big controversy and questions were raised regarding its validity, timing and appropriateness.
TN Seshan had moved the Supreme Court to quash a 1993 Presidential Ordinance, calling it unconstitutional.
Through this ordinance, the Election Commission was made a multi-member body by appointing two election commissioners apart from Seshan. Seshan had challenged this ordinance and said that it was against the already established constitutional principles.
However, the Supreme Court had said that this ordinance was in accordance with Article 324 of the Constitution. The court had said, "The Election Commission can be a single-member body as well as a multi-member one."
