Former Special Chief Secretary Seeks Eci Records Under Rti To Test Commission's Claim That Its Two Election Commissioners Merely Offered “suggestions”
Sep23,2026
| Jagrati Lahar Bureau | Chandigarh
Chandigarh, 23 September 2026. Did the Election Commission's own Commissioners approve
the press note that described their objections as “suggestions”? KBS Sidhu, a retired IAS officer
who superannuated as Special Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab, has now asked the
Commission to answer that question from its own files.
KBS Sidhu, who had earlier today sent an open letter to the two Election Commissioners, has in an
application under the Right to Information Act, 2005, addressed to the Central Public Information
Officer of the Election Commission of India (ECI), sought copies of the records behind the
Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) decisions from 1 November 2025 to 23 September
2026. These include:
• the file approving the ECI's Press Note No. ECI/PN/119/2026 of 23 September, showing
whether Election Commissioners Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr Vivek Joshi approved it;
• the order approving the change to Form 6, the new-voter form, and any Gazette notification
amending the rules to permit it;
• the dates and minutes of meetings of the full Commission, including any recorded dissent;
• the authorisation for some 16 lakh appeals filed in the Commission's name in West Bengal
against voters restored by judicial officers;
• the Goa Chief Electoral Officer's eight letters of February 2026 seeking a facility to restore
eligible voters;
• orders on the distribution of work among the three Commissioners, and on access to the
ERONet/ECINet roll database;
• the notes recorded by the two Election Commissioners in April 2026 on communications
issued in the Commission's name without its approval.
The ECI's press note, issued today after The Indian Express reported that the two Election
Commissioners had objected on record at least fourteen times in ten months, described their notes
as “suggestions” and said the SIR decisions were unanimous. “Dr Sandhu's recorded word for the
Form 6 change was ‘unauthorised and illegal’,” said KBS Sidhu. “An objection in those terms is not a
suggestion. If the decisions were unanimous, the minutes will show it, and the Commission should
have no difficulty releasing them.”
KBS Sidhu's open letter to Dr Sandhu and Dr Joshi, marked to the Chief Election Commissioner, Shri
Gyanesh Kumar, recalls the Supreme Court's 1995 judgment in T.N. Seshan v. Union of India, which
held that the Election Commissioners are equal in rank with the Chief Election Commissioner and
that the Commission decides by majority. It urges the two Commissioners to convene a full meeting
of the Commission and, where they find a decision unauthorised, illegal or unconstitutional, to
review and reverse it by a two-to-one vote.
The letter also rests on Article 326 of the Constitution. Under it, every citizen aged eighteen who is
ordinarily resident and not disqualified is entitled to be registered as a voter. “The Constitution
says ‘shall be entitled’. It does not say ‘if mapped to a roll of 2003’. No form or software rule can
add a fourth condition,” KBS Sidhu said.
Citing the urgency, with Punjab's final electoral roll due on 12 October and rolls being finalised in
several other States, the application asks for early disposal. It seeks the records in electronic form
and undertakes to pay any fee for copies on intimation.
KBS Sidhu, a 1984-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre, has discharged duties under the election
law at every level, from presiding officer to District Election Officer, Amritsar, and has served as an
ECI observer in three Lok Sabha elections. He is Founder-Editor of The KBS Chronicle, where the
open letter and his analyses of the SIR are published.
Contact: KBS Sidhu | kbs.sidhu@gmail.com | 7837-001-001. The open letter and the RTI
application are available on request.
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