New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has described police complaints lodged against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal in relation to the deaths of voters who received hearing notices under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise as attempts to intimidate commission officials.
In unusually sharp language, the CEO, West Bengal, wrote on X: “No stone will be left unturned to unearth the conspiracy behind these serial and fabricated complaints, rule of law and truth shall prevail.”
The CEO Agarwal in the post and the thread of posts, which has tagged the Home Ministry and Department of Personnel and training, writes, “It has come to the notice of this office from various press releases that two complaints have been filed with the police, against the Chief Election Commissioner of India and the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal.” He adds “the allegations contained therein appear to be premeditated, unsubstantiated and a crude attempt to browbeat the officers tasked with discharging statutory duties in connection with SIR 2026.”
Calling the reports of the FIR on the deaths, pressure tactics, the CEO said: “Such intimidatory tactics designed to threaten the election machinery into submission and derail the process are undoubtedly destined to fail.”“…The election machinery in the state is committed to function with grit and rectitude solely and wholly in public interest.”
Newspaper reports quoted Election Commission officials as saying that no FIR can be registered against the Chief Election Commissioner, arguing that the law clearly bars such action. They were cited as stating that a chief electoral officer cannot be held criminally liable for acts performed in the course of official duties, and warned that any FIR filed by the police would have legal repercussions. The reports pointed out that a provision introduced in the controversial law governing the appointment of Election Commissioners, enacted before Gyanesh Kumar took office, explicitly shields the CEC and Election Commissioners from legal proceedings. Clause 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 grants immunity for decisions taken while in office.
In the meantime, reports from West Bengal and other states where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is being carried out under a tight schedule suggest that the process has caused widespread anxiety among booth-level officers (BLOs), with several deaths being reported and deadlines for draft rolls being extended. Complaints have been filed by the families of two elderly voters who died on Monday, December 29, after receiving hearing notices under the SIR exercise.
According to The Telegraph, a resident of Purulia, Kanai Majhi, alleged that his 82-year-old father, Durjan Majhi, became severely distressed after receiving a notice stating that his name appeared in the physical 2002 SIR rolls but was missing from the 2002 list uploaded on the Election Commission’s website. The report said Durjan Majhi died by suicide just hours before his scheduled hearing.
In a separate case from Howrah, the son of 64-year-old Jamat Ali Sekh alleged that the CEC and the state chief electoral officer had abused their authority by issuing a hearing notice to his father, who he said was a valid voter. He claimed that the notice caused severe mental stress, which allegedly led to his father’s death, The Wire reported.
Amid mounting criticism, the Election Commission has repeatedly modified its rules. In a notification issued in West Bengal on December 27, it cited a “technical glitch” and clarified that around 1.3 lakh voters whose names appeared in the 2002 physical SIR rolls but were missing from the online database would not be required to attend hearings. Reports from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh also suggested that nearly 15,000 sadhus could face difficulties in naming their parents for the purpose of tracing lineage, and that the ECI might consider granting them exemptions as well.
The poll body has faced sharp scrutiny for what critics describe as a series of mid-course corrections and procedural lapses. An editorial in The Hindu characterised the exercise as gradually turning into a “descent into farce.”
The Wire reported on December 30 about a school headmaster who died by suicide allegedly due to pressure linked to the process, and also cited several BLOs in Bankura district of West Bengal as saying that the publication of draft voter lists and preparations for hearings had taken a serious toll on their health. Members of the Constitutional Conduct Group wrote to say that the suo motu, system-driven deletion of voters from draft rolls in West Bengal had bypassed the statutory role of electoral registration officers.
Separately, The Reporters’ Collective reported that despite informing the Supreme Court that its de-duplication software was defective, the ECI reactivated it eight days later in 12 states, while abandoning established safety protocols and deploying another undocumented algorithm without a written procedure.
In the latest revision of timelines, the Election Commission has deferred the publication of draft electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh to January 6, with the final list expected later.
Following a meeting with the Election Commission on December 31, Trinamool Congress national general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee, who was part of a party delegation, said the Commission had failed to address his party’s concerns. He alleged that the Chief Election Commissioner behaved aggressively during the interaction and claimed that the CEC lost his temper during the discussion. Banerjee said he had reminded the CEC that while the latter was nominated, he himself was elected, and challenged the Commission to release footage of the meeting.