IN an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of India (ECI) sought to clarify that observations, suggestions and questions by individual commissioners were just that, and not the ECI’s decisions. It said the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls is legal, its process justified, and that the petitioners’ allegations relating to changes in voter registration procedures and decision-making process are misconceived.

The EC’s affidavit, filed in response to a petition by social activist Rakesh Kumar Singh, said it “has been approved for filing… by a unanimous decision of the three members of the Election Commission, i.e., two Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner.”

Singh’s petition and the ECI affidavit come in the wake of the September 23 report in The Indian Express which pointed to several file noting by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi raising questions on the ECI’s Special Intensive Revision process, observations that…