New Delhi: The Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), a collection of nonpartisan former civil servants, has written an open letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI) about the ‘urgent need’ for updated and accurate electoral rolls in view of several assembly elections that will take place next year.
The group had in the past had constituted the Citizens’ Commission on Elections (CCE), which released two reports earlier this year (read The Wire‘s reports here and here), identifying a”number of critical issues pertaining to the conduct of elections”, including the continuing exclusion of people from vulnerable and disadvantaged groups; discrepancies in the registration process, among others.
However, the present open letter “focuses on the integrity and accuracy of the electoral rolls, including special care to include vulnerable populations”, the CCG said, adding that this alone will guarantee the citizens of India their precious and basic right to vote. The letter has been endorsed by 100 former civil servants.
The group recommended a series of actions, which if implemented by the ECI, would result in electoral rolls that are updated and accurate. The CCG said that the ECI needs to make special rules for the urban homeless and put in place special measures for differently abled persons to make it easier for these communities to register.
A foolproof mechanism needs to be set in place for voters to verify their inclusion in the rolls, CCG, said as there have been “far too many instances in recent years of voters reaching polling stations on voting day and finding their names missing from the electoral rolls”. This is most often because of the deletion or transposition of names without notice to voters.
To check bogus voting, CCG said that “concerted efforts need to be made to systematically weed out names of those voters who have relocated elsewhere or are no more, especially given the migration and mortality trends in the Covid pandemic period”.
The group also vehemently opposed the linking of Aadhaar with voter IDs, saying this move “appears to be clearly unconstitutional”.
The former diplomats said that while both volumes of the CCE’s report had been sent to the ECI for examination and, the group has not heard back from the body yet. “The links to the two volumes are given in the body of this letter. We urge you to respond to our concerns and take remedial actions as suggested in the two volumes. The matter assumes urgency in view of the upcoming general elections to state assemblies in 2022,” they said.
The full letter, along with the list of signatories, has been reproduced below.
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CCG open letter to the Election Commission of India:
Urgent need for updated, accurate electoral rolls
2 September 2021
To
Shri Sushil Chandra
Chief Election Commissioner
Dear Shri Chandra,
Our group of former civil servants is nonpartisan and believes firmly in the Constitution of India. We have had a number of opportunities to interact with your predecessors in the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the past four years on issues relating to the impartiality and integrity of the electoral process, which is the bedrock of our democracy.
As part of our duty as responsible citizens of India, we had constituted the Citizens’ Commission on Elections (CCE), which brought out its reports in two volumes earlier this year (Report of the Citizens’ Commission on Elections – Vol. I and Report of the Citizens’ Commission on Elections – Vol. II). While a number of critical issues pertaining to the conduct of elections have been brought out in these two reports, our present letter focuses on the integrity and accuracy of the electoral rolls, including special care to include vulnerable populations, which alone guarantee the citizen of India her/his precious and basic right to vote. Vol. II of the CCE report highlights the following aspects:
(i) the persistence of the exclusion of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, such as persons from religious and caste minority communities, women, Dalits, Adivasis (especially Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups or PVTGs), trans-people, the urban homeless, persons with disabilities and persons with mental health issues, from the electoral rolls;
(ii) failure of the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) to ensure the full and verifiable enrolment of persons from all such categories;
(iii) discrepancies in the registration process wherein, even if a person is provided with an EPIC, there is no guarantee that her/his name will figure in the relevant electoral roll;
(iv) problems in voting for categories like circular migrant labour and those whose physical condition (due to age and disability) inhibit their travel to polling stations to vote.
In view of the above infirmities in the electoral registration process, we suggest the following remedial measures for your urgent consideration:
- Ensuring registration of all eligible voters
It must be impressed upon EROs that it is their paramount duty to ensure that all eligible voters are included in the electoral rolls. If certain populations are excluded from electoral rolls because of their social and economic disadvantage, this amounts to their disenfranchisement and the denial to them of their most fundamental right in a democracy, namely to cast their vote during general, state, municipal and panchayat elections. Due care should be taken by the EROs to scrupulously attend to claims and objections from citizens for inclusion, deletion and corrections to voter records. While the central and state election staff must do all that it takes to undertake a thorough exercise to include all names, we urge that the electoral registration (ER) machinery in the districts and municipal areas also enlist the active support and cooperation of NGOs and civil society groups who can bring to the notice of the ER machinery the names of those not enrolled. Political parties registered in the respective constituencies could also be requested, indeed encouraged and facilitated, to bring to the notice of the ERO such excluded names, which can then be verified by the ER machinery. It is essential that the ECI appoints senior civil servants from outside the state/UT where such exercise is under way as Special Observers to oversee the electoral registration process to ensure accuracy and objectivity.
In particular, we wish to stress the need for the ECI to make special rules for the urban homeless and put in place special measures for differently abled persons. The normal procedures for registration and verification that apply before a name is included in the electoral lists create virtually unsurpassable barriers for the urban homeless. Typically, homeless women and men have no documents that prove their identity or address. For these groups (members of which have no homes), special rules that permit either self-verification, or verification by any individual whose name exists in the electoral lists, are needed. Since they have no fixed address, we propose that the address of the nearest homeless shelter where they sleep at night, or the address of an NGO that works with homeless populations in the city, should suffice for purposes of the electoral list.
Any information that is publicly required to be made available to people about the election processes etc must be available in accessible formats. Information necessary to enable a person to exercise her franchise in a legal and informed way must be made accessible to all, especially people who communicate differently. There should be detailed awareness drives and some proactive measures (with civil society assistance) to get vulnerable populations, including persons with disabilities, to exercise their right to vote.
- Foolproof mechanism for verification by voter of inclusion of name in relevant part of electoral roll
There have been far too many instances in recent years of voters reaching polling stations on voting day and finding their names missing from the electoral rolls, most often because of deletion/transposition of names without notice to voters. The insistence of the ECI on publishing the electoral rolls as image PDF files online makes prior verification of a voter’s name an arduous task, requiring scrolling through many pages to locate her/his name. There is also evidence to show discrepancies between the NVSP data and the electoral rolls. Unless a simple process for verification of voter names by electoral roll part is developed (as outlined in point no. 5 of this letter), this problem will continue to trouble voters.
- Deletion of duplicate names, shifted/dead voters
To check bogus voting, concerted efforts need to be made to systematically weed out names of those voters who have relocated elsewhere or are no more, especially given the migration and mortality trends in the Covid pandemic period. The electoral rolls are also replete with duplicate entries. Assistance should be taken, as mentioned earlier, of civil society groups and political parties to weed out names. With regard to duplicate entries, metaphones and fuzzy-matching approaches can be employed to identify similar voter-name and relative-name sets. Thereafter, photographs of voters within these sets can be compared using image comparison software. There is need to improve the data entry software, with built-in warnings when duplicate entries are being made and verification by the ERO where such warnings are ignored by lower staff.
- Using Aadhaar to validate Voter IDs constitutes a gross violation of the citizen’s right to privacy
The Aadhaar ID is meant to be used for specific purposes, such as disbursal of benefits. The EPIC-Voter ID is given to voters by a constitutional authority (the ECI) and forms the basis of the electoral roll, whereas the Aadhaar ID is a government sponsored identity. Linking the Voter ID and the Aadhaar number appears to be clearly unconstitutional, apart from not being provided for in the Aadhaar Act (the 2017 judgment of the Supreme Court in Puttaswamy vs. Union of India is relevant here) or in the Representation of the People Acts, 1950 and 1951. Those whose Aadhaar fails on authentication due to biometric change (as in those of advanced age), technology failure or any other reason are excluded whenever authentication is required. This has been the unfortunate experience of ration card holders in different parts of the country. The Telangana CEO reported in September 2018 that 2.2 million people were excluded from the electoral rolls after Aadhaar based “verification” was carried out in 2015, thus depriving them of the right to vote in the general elections to the Telangana legislative assembly. Enrolment and continuance of names on the electoral rolls is based on the integrity of the electoral database. The risk of the electoral database being compromised will be far higher if it is linked to the Aadhaar database, which is not under the control of the ECI and can be tampered with by an outside body. The Cambridge Analytica episode, highlighted in 2018, brings out the dangers of influencing voters by targeting messages to them based on their psychometric profiles. It is very likely that the linkage of Aadhaar numbers to Voter IDs would allow the targeted manipulation of the beneficiaries of subsidies, benefits and services. We strongly oppose any move to link Aadhaar numbers with Voter IDs.
- Ensuring error-free, verifiable electoral rolls
Three aspects must guide the preparation of electoral rolls: (a) processes for inclusion of all voters, irrespective of whether they apply or not; (b) avoiding exclusion through correct processing of all applications for inclusion and ensuring no spurious deletions; (c) ensuring no duplicate/false entries. These require careful process design at community levels and defining standards of data processing and data organisation that will enable local communities to publicly audit and verify all additions and deletions from electoral rolls.
We recommend maintaining of electoral records on online Public Bulletin Boards, enabling both complete transparency and public verifiability of all decisions regarding enrolments, updations and deletions. Two such public bulletin boards should be maintained by the ECI for each assembly constituency with updation as and when changes occur:
(i) A self-contained bulletin board of the entire electoral roll, which will be the official master electoral roll correct up to the time of the last update. The list of valid voters on any date can be publicly determined from this bulletin board.
(ii) A bulletin board of transaction records, which enables every voter given a receipt for application for enrolment, updation or deletion to search for the application process status on this bulletin board.
A detailed exposition on these Bulletin Boards may be viewed in Vol. II of the CCE Report (link given in paragraph 2 of this letter).
We reiterate our complete opposition to the linking of Aadhaar numbers and Voter IDs which, in our opinion, constitute a gross violation of the right to privacy of the individual while also allowing executive manipulation of access to beneficiaries to influence election outcomes.
We had earlier sent the ECI copies of both the volumes of our Report for examination and comment but have not heard from you so far. The links to the two volumes are given in the body of this letter. We urge you to respond to our concerns and take remedial actions as suggested in the two volumes. The matter assumes urgency in view of the upcoming general elections to state assemblies in 2022.
Our representatives are available for any discussion with the ECI on the issues involved.
SATYAMEVA JAYATE
Yours sincerely,
Constitutional Conduct Group
(100 signatories, as below)
| 1 | Anita Agnihotri | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Social Justice Empowerment, GoI |
| 2 | Salahuddin Ahmad | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan |
| 3 | V.S. Ailawadi | IAS (Retd.) | Former Vice Chairman, Delhi Development Authority |
| 4 | S.P. Ambrose | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Secretary, Ministry of Shipping & Transport, GoI |
| 5 | Ramani Venkatesan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, YASHADA, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 6 | Anand Arni | RAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 7 | G. Balachandhran | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 8 | Vappala Balachandran | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 9 | Gopalan Balagopal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 10 | Chandrashekhar Balakrishnan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Coal, GoI |
| 11 | Rana Banerji | RAS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 12 | Sharad Behar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 13 | Aurobindo Behera | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Odisha |
| 14 | Madhu Bhaduri | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Portugal |
| 15 | K.V. Bhagirath | IFS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, Indian Ocean Rim Association, Mauritius |
| 16 | Pradip Bhattacharya | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Development & Planning and Administrative Training Institute, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 17 | Ravi Budhiraja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, GoI |
| 18 | Sundar Burra | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 19 | R. Chandramohan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary, Transport and Urban Development, Govt. of NCT of Delhi |
| 20 | Rachel Chatterjee | IAS (Retd.) | Former Special Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh |
| 21 | Gurjit Singh Cheema | IAS (Retd.) | Former Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Govt. of Punjab |
| 22 | F.T.R. Colaso | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police, Govt. of Karnataka & former Director General of Police, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir |
| 23 | Anna Dani | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 24 | Vibha Puri Das | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, GoI |
| 25 | P.R. Dasgupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Food Corporation of India, GoI |
| 26 | Pradeep K. Deb | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Deptt. Of Sports, GoI |
| 27 | Nitin Desai | Former Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, GoI | |
| 28 | Keshav Desiraju | IAS (Retd.) | Former Health Secretary, GoI |
| 29 | M.G. Devasahayam | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Govt. of Haryana |
| 30 | Sushil Dubey | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Sweden |
| 31 | A.S. Dulat | IPS (Retd.) | Former OSD on Kashmir, Prime Minister’s Office, GoI |
| 32 | K.P. Fabian | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Italy |
| 33 | Arif Ghauri | IRS (Retd.) | Former Governance Adviser, DFID, Govt. of the United Kingdom (on deputation) |
| 34 | Gourisankar Ghosh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Mission Director, National Drinking Water Mission, GoI |
| 35 | Suresh K. Goel | IFS (Retd.) | Former Director General, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, GoI |
| 36 | H.S. Gujral | IFoS (Retd.) | Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Govt. of Punjab |
| 37 | Meena Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests, GoI |
| 38 | Ravi Vira Gupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India |
| 39 | Wajahat Habibullah | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, GoI and former Chief Information Commissioner |
| 40 | Deepa Hari | IRS (Resigned) | |
| 41 | Siraj Hussain | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Agriculture, GoI |
| 42 | Kamal Jaswal | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI |
| 43 | Najeeb Jung | IAS (Retd.) | Former Lieutenant Governor, Delhi |
| 44 | Brijesh Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Department of Information Technology, GoI |
| 45 | Sudhir Kumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal |
| 46 | Harsh Mander | IAS (Retd.) | Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 47 | Amitabh Mathur | IPS (Retd.) | Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, GoI |
| 48 | Lalit Mathur | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General, National Institute of Rural Development, GoI |
| 49 | Aditi Mehta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan |
| 50 | Sonalini Mirchandani | IFS (Resigned) | GoI |
| 51 | Satya Narayan Mohanty | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission |
| 52 | Deb Mukharji | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and former Ambassador to Nepal |
| 53 | Shiv Shankar Mukherjee | IFS (Retd.) | Former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom |
| 54 | Gautam Mukhopadhaya | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Myanmar |
| 55 | Sobha Nambisan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Secretary (Planning), Govt. of Karnataka |
| 56 | Surendra Nath | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Finance Commission, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 57 | P.A. Nazareth | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Egypt and Mexico |
| 58 | P. Joy Oommen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Chhattisgarh |
| 59 | Amitabha Pande | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Inter-State Council, GoI |
| 60 | Maxwell Pereira | IPS (Retd.) | Former Joint Commissioner of Police, Delhi |
| 61 | Alok Perti | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Coal, GoI |
| 62 | G.K. Pillai | IAS (Retd.) | Former Home Secretary, GoI |
| 63 | Rajesh Prasad | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to the Netherlands |
| 64 | Sharda Prasad | IAS (Retd.) | Former Director General (Employment and Training), Ministry of Labour and Employment, GoI |
| 65 | R.M. Premkumar | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 66 | Rajdeep Puri | IRS (Resigned) | Former Joint Commissioner of Income Tax, GoI |
| 67 | T.R. Raghunandan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, GoI |
| 68 | N.K. Raghupathy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, GoI |
| 69 | V.P. Raja | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chairman, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission |
| 70 | C. Babu Rajeev | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, GoI |
| 71 | K. Sujatha Rao | IAS (Retd.) | Former Health Secretary, GoI |
| 72 | M.Y. Rao | IAS (Retd.) | |
| 73 | Satwant Reddy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, GoI |
| 74 | Vijaya Latha Reddy | IFS (Retd.) | Former Deputy National Security Adviser, GoI |
| 75 | Julio Ribeiro | IPS (Retd.) | Former Adviser to Governor of Punjab & former Ambassador to Romania |
| 76 | Aruna Roy | IAS (Resigned) | |
| 77 | Manabendra N. Roy | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 78 | A.K. Samanta | IPS (Retd.) | Former Director General of Police (Intelligence), Govt. of West Bengal |
| 79 | Deepak Sanan | IAS (Retd.) | Former Principal Adviser (AR) to Chief Minister, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh |
| 80 | G. Sankaran | IC&CES (Retd.) | Former President, Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal |
| 81 | N.C. Saxena | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Planning Commission, GoI |
| 82 | A. Selvaraj | IRS (Retd.) | Former Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, Chennai, GoI |
| 83 | Ardhendu Sen | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary, Govt. of West Bengal |
| 84 | Abhijit Sengupta | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Culture, GoI |
| 85 | Aftab Seth | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Japan |
| 86 | Ashok Kumar Sharma | IFoS (Retd.) | Former MD, State Forest Development Corporation, Govt. of Gujarat |
| 87 | Ashok Kumar Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Finland and Estonia |
| 88 | Navrekha Sharma | IFS (Retd.) | Former Ambassador to Indonesia |
| 89 | Pravesh Sharma | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 90 | Raju Sharma | IAS (Retd.) | Former Member, Board of Revenue, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh |
| 91 | Rashmi Shukla Sharma | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh |
| 92 | Satyavir Singh | IRS (Retd.) | Former Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, GoI |
| 93 | Sujatha Singh | IFS (Retd.) | Former Foreign Secretary, GoI |
| 94 | Tara Ajai Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka |
| 95 | Tirlochan Singh | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, National Commission for Minorities, GoI |
| 96 | Narendra Sisodia | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI |
| 97 | Parveen Talha | IRS (Retd.) | Former Member, Union Public Service Commission |
| 98 | Thanksy Thekkekera | IAS (Retd.) | Former Additional Chief Secretary, Minorities Development, Govt. of Maharashtra |
| 99 | P.S.S. Thomas | IAS (Retd.) | Former Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission |
| 100 | Hindal Tyabji | IAS (Retd.) | Former Chief Secretary rank, Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir |