Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has rebuked Union Ministries for violating protocols while seeking approval for decisions to be announced after the Model Code of Conduct kicks in.
In a letter to Cabinet Secretary P.K. Sinha, the EC has indicated that requests to the EC for grant of ‘No Objection’ for specific decisions would simply be returned without consideration if the Ministries’ communications to the Constitutional body did not follow procedure.
The Commission had returned such requests in several cases during the recent State Assembly elections and has cited some examples from the polls held in five States last year, and the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh polls of December 2017.
The Commission has taken “a serious note of the way in which officers of various Central government departments are sending references” without following due procedure, and urged the Cabinet Secretary to ensure strict compliance.
References to Constitutional and statutory bodies like the EC have to be done in the form of a letter to its Secretary, Principal Secretary or Deputy Election Commissioner (Deputy EC). Simply sending an office memorandum from junior officials to the EC is not acceptable, it said.
Writing to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) or the Election Commissioners (EC) is not permitted, except in rare “important cases” where the head of a department feels that something has to be brought to the personal notice of the CEC or ECs.
“During general election to the State Legislative Assemblies of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, references from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, for grant of No Objection under the Model Code of Conduct were received in the form of an office memorandum,” Deputy Election Commissioner Sandeep Saxena said in the letter sent to the Cabinet Secretary on December 18, 2018.
The Commission decided not to consider the said references and returned them to the Ministries. Moreover, during the recent polls in five States, a Joint Secretary in the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry made a reference directly to the Chief Election Commissioner of India “by name”, the Deputy EC pointed out.
Adhere to norms
Taking note of the EC’s complaint, the Cabinet Secretariat has urged Secretaries to all Ministries to ensure strict adherence with the norms in communications to the ECI and other Constitutional authorities.
Some Ministries, it pointed out, are still writing to the Commission in “a routine manner”, addressing demi-official letters to the CEC or EC, in spite of clear instructions regarding the form and procedure to be followed.