IS INDIA’S DEMOCRACY FALLING APART? ISSUES WITH ECI IS ISSUE DEMOICRATIC TRUST | Mr. GOKULAKRISHNAN

ECI basics (for Prelims)

Constitutional body: Article 324 gives it superintendence, direction and control of elections to Parliament, State Legislatures, and the offices of President and Vice-President

Established: 25 January 1950 (celebrated as National Voters’ Day)

Multi-member body: Briefly in 1989, and permanently since 1993: one Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and two Election Commissioners (ECs)

Tenure: 6 years or until the age of 65, whichever comes first

Removal: The CEC can be removed only in the same way as a Supreme Court judge. The ECs can be removed on the CEC’s recommendation (Article 324(5))

Appointments: In Anoop Baranwal v. Union of India (2023), the Supreme Court said a panel of the PM, the Leader of the Opposition and the CJI should select the members until Parliament made a law. The CEC & ECs Act, 2023 replaced the CJI with a Union Cabinet Minister.

Unequal security of tenure: The CEC and the ECs have different levels of removal protection

Financial and administrative dependence: The ECI’s expenses are not charged on the Consolidated Fund of India, and it has no independent secretariat

Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists: The debate between keeping rolls clean and the risk of excluding genuine voters

EVM and VVPAT trust: Concerns about transparency, and the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling rejecting 100% VVPAT matching

Model Code of Conduct: It has no statutory backing, and questions are raised about how evenly it is enforced