00:00Joining me now is Vikas Singh, Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court.
00:04Vikas Singh, a lot of questions being raised about the functioning of an independent constitutional authority.
00:09Several measures have been taken as well, which many are seeing as course correction.
00:14And many within the government, particularly the allies of the government,
00:17and also the Chief Ministers of NDA Rule States, are of the opinion that
00:22the two press releases by the Election Commission certainly reaffirms
00:26the integrity and credibility of constitutional institutions
00:30and puts all misconceptions surrounding it to rest.
00:35My question is, as a lawyer, do you see that happening?
00:41In my view, the whole purpose of getting a multi-member body was,
00:46if you recall in 1994, to ensure that no one man takes a decision with regard to the electoral process.
00:55And the electoral process remains, you know, with a multi-member body.
01:01In fact, the law very clearly provided that the decision of the Election Commission should be unanimous.
01:08And if it is not possible to be unanimous, then it has to be by majority.
01:12So, obviously, there was no way by which the Election Commission
01:16could have done anything unilaterally without consulting the other Election Commissioners
01:23or taking them into confidence.
01:25So many elections have happened in this regime where the CEC has virtually worked individually
01:34as the report goes in the Indian Express.
01:37And I don't see any credible denial to that.
01:41It's a very wishy-washy denial which has come.
01:42There is nothing in the public domain so far to show that the other members had,
01:49or even by majority, any decision was taken with regard to these elections in the recent past
01:54or with regard to this exercise of SIR, which has done by the Election Commission.
02:00Even the Supreme Court, when it examined the SIR exercise,
02:05it examined it on the premise that it was a decision of the Election Commission.
02:10If the decision itself was not of the Election Commission,
02:14then obviously there was no decision of the, no such decision in the eyes of law.
02:20And there could not have been any examination of the same by the Supreme Court.
02:25So, for instance, whether to do the SIR exercise or not
02:29was actually a decision of the Election Commission.
02:32It is not as if the Supreme Court said that do this exercise.
02:35Supreme Court barely validated it, according to me, wrongly,
02:39because in my view, this is not the job of the Election Commission.
02:42Election Commission does not have any authority to decide on citizenship of the people of this country.
02:50That is a job clearly earmarked for the Ministry of Home Affairs,
02:55that too under the Citizenship Act.
02:57And there is a very elaborate exercise to do that.
03:00And you don't lose your citizenship so easily the way Election Commission is doing
03:04in this very casual exercise.
03:07So, this exercise is completely illegal, in my view.
03:12And now, with the doubt being raised about whether this was a decision of the Election Commission at all,
03:20raises serious concern about how this whole thing started in the first place.
03:25But, Mr. Vikas Singh, Election Commission as a body has faced criticism and scrutiny in the past as well.
03:32The tenure of TN Session, MS Gill, and Naveen Chawla, for that matter.
03:38This is a body which has been in the middle of multiple controversies in the past.
03:42So, do you see this more like a political slugfest?
03:48And, you know, as an authority which should have functioned in a way it should have,
03:52it has always been in the eye of the storm, one would say.
03:57So, what is unusual this time?
04:00The, if you recall the earlier attempts of, you know, questioning the working of the Election Commission
04:07did not ever raise any serious issue of credibility of the institution.
04:13You know, there was a decision-making process which was said to be flawed.
04:17The EVM was also said to be flawed.
04:20But, never ever was there any, you know, question raised,
04:25especially the way it has been raised now,
04:27with regard to the impartiality of the Election Commission.
04:31I mean, there was nothing in the public domain to say that the Election Commission is working
04:35in a partisan manner the way it is being said now, in this, of this Election Commission.
04:41So, in my view, the only way to correct this situation will be to immediately remove the Chief Election Commissioner.
04:48It can't happen by the government because he is, he is obviously,
04:54his, his, the beneficiaries are the people who are running the show.
04:58So, obviously, they will never remove him because he has to require removal by impeachment.
05:04According to me, it has to be by court only.
05:06And I hope the court does intervene in this matter to restore the credibility of the institution
05:14and ask the Chief Election Commissioner to go and appoint the new CEC in a modified collegium,
05:23where, which was the earlier collegium prior to this law came into force,
05:28which is the Chief Justice of India being a member of that collegium.
05:32Or anybody independent, not, not a cabinet minister, obviously,
05:36because a cabinet minister holds the office at the pleasure of the prime minister.
05:40So, you can't expect any cabinet minister to say anything contrary to what the prime minister is saying.
05:46So, there has to be, as an interim appointment of the CEC,
05:51where the third person should be completely neutral.
05:54And it is only then that the faith of the people will be restored in this institution.
05:59And immediately, this SIR exercise should be scrapped.
06:03And wherever any deletion has happened, this deletion should be restored.
06:08And the electoral roll should be made as it was earlier.
06:12Only to the extent of where there is a death, people should, those names should be removed.
06:17And wherever there is a person turning into a majority who has a right to vote should be included.
06:25Change of addresses should be permitted.
06:27But that's about all that the Election Commission should be doing as far as the electoral roll is concerned.
06:32And they have no authority on the, deciding on the citizenship.
06:37So, I think this is the only course correction, in my view,
06:39which can restore the confidence of the people in the Election Commission.
06:44All right.
06:45Vikas Singh, I appreciate your time.
06:46Thank you so much for joining us.
