An RTI response has indicated that the Cabinet Secretariat did not act on separate communications sent by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi regarding the working of an officer in the Election Commission of India, according to a Press Trust of India report published by Business Standard on October 23.
The report says the communications were sent on July 29 to Cabinet Secretary T. V. Somanathan and concerned Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg. The records cited in the RTI response indicate that the Secretariat considered the letters to have been sent in the commissioners’ individual capacities and said action could be inappropriate without an official communication from the Commission as a whole.
What the disclosure establishes
The RTI response describes the Secretariat’s handling of the communications; it does not by itself determine the merits of the underlying complaints. The distinction between individual communications and a formal institutional communication is central to the explanation reported.
The matter concerns administrative procedure and the functioning of an independent constitutional institution. Any further assessment should be based on the full RTI response, the original letters and any subsequent official statements.
Source
Press Trust of India via Business Standard. Read the report. Official institution: Election Commission of India.
