New Delhi: Union Ministry of Law and Justice has clarified that the recent interaction of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra and two other Election Commissioners with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) was "informal" after the same had kicked off a controversy and raised questions of propriety.
In a statement, the Ministry said the November 16 meeting was virtual and was meant to discuss certain issues requiring "further fine-tuning".
It acknowledged that CEC Chandra did speak to the Secretary, Legislative Department "expressing his displeasure over the expression in the middle part of the letter which gave an impression that it was expected of him to attend the meeting".
"Several proposals of the Election Commission of India regarding Electoral Reforms have been pending for a long time. The Chief Election Commissioner has addressed several letters...to the Law Minister that the pending reforms may be considered expeditiously. The Legislative Department is the nodal department regarding matters related to Election Commission and regular interaction takes place between officials of ECI and Legislative department," the statement read.
Secretary, Legislative Department clarified that the letter was for Secretary or a representative of the CEC familiar with the subject to attend the meeting.
"Since the Election Commission of India has the necessary expertise and mandate regarding Electoral roll and in the light of the previous letters of the Chief Election Commissioner addressed to the Law Minister, Secretary, the Legislative Department thought it appropriate to invite officials of Election Commission to this meeting," it added.
"This meeting on 16.11.2021 was a virtual meeting and no physical meeting was organised in the PMO. The said virtual meeting was attended by the Officials of Government of India and officials of Election Commission of India. After the meeting of Officials, certain issues required further fine-tuning. These issues include the number of qualifying dates for updation of electoral roll, some aspects of Aadhaar linkage and requisition of premises," the Law Ministry said in the statement.
