Exclusion of eligible voters is grave sin, says former CEC O.P. Rawat

Bhopal, Sep 23 (SocialNews.XYZ) Amid a controversy surrounding the Election Commission of India (ECI) over its conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, former Chief Election Commissioner of India OP Rawat on Wednesday termed the exclusion of eligible voters as a "grave sin".

The row erupted after a report by a leading newspaper claimed that two Election Commissioners had "objected on record" to several decisions taken by the poll panel, allegedly without their knowledge.

The ECI has denied the report.

Speaking to IANS, former CEC Rawat said: "There are different opinions about this. The best thing would be for all three of them (Election Commissioners and Chief Election Commissioner) to sit together and clarify in a press conference what the matter was. If there was dissent, then a decision could not have been taken. Because a decision by the Election Commission can only be taken either by consensus or by a majority vote, and not otherwise."

However, he acknowledged that there have been several mistakes in the SIR process from the beginning, starting with Bihar.

"Gradually, the Election Commission improved the process and tried to make it smoother. But recently in West Bengal, the appellate tribunals ruled that 93 per cent of the voters who had been excluded were eligible and should be added back to the electoral rolls. These people were deprived of the opportunity to vote. This is a grave sin," Rawat underlined.

"An institution like the Election Commission should never allow such a thing to happen, and it should now thoroughly review the SIR process so that such a grave sin never occurs again."

Meanwhile, the ECI on Wednesday said every officer in the institution is "fully authorised" to offer suggestions for improving the electoral system, while underlining that several "unanimous decisions" have been taken by the poll body in recent months.

The Commission said that differing views, observations and suggestions are a normal part of deliberations within any institution and pointed out that the decision-making process involves not only the three Election Commissioners but also officials across the organisation.

Source: IANS