In a scathing assault on the Election Commission’s credibility, senior Congress MP Manish Tewari declared in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that the poll body has no constitutional or statutory authority to conduct the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across multiple states, and called for its immediate suspension.

Initiating a crucial debate on electoral reforms, the former Union minister asserted that growing distrust among opposition leaders and citizens has made it imperative to question the Election Commission’s neutrality. He argued that the first and most urgent reform must be the repeal of the controversial 2023 Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, which he accused of compromising the institution’s independence.

Tewari proposed expanding the selection committee for appointing election commissioners from the current trio of the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, and a Union Cabinet Minister to a five-member panel by including the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and the Chief Justice of India. “Only such a balanced committee can ensure that ‘theek se khela hobega’ and restore complete faith in the Election Commission,” he emphasised.

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Turning to the contentious SIR exercise currently underway in states like Bihar and Kerala, Tewari stated with categorical certainty that neither the Constitution nor any law empowers the Election Commission to undertake wholesale revision of voter lists without recording specific, publicly disclosed reasons constituency-wise. “The EC can correct errors in particular constituencies after documenting the problems in writing – it cannot blanket-launch SIR across entire states,” he charged, demanding that the government immediately produce those written justifications or halt the process.

Accusing previous SIR exercises of being equally illegal, the Congress leader warned that repeated violations do not legitimise the current one. “Multiple wrongs do not make a right,” Tewari declared, underscoring that the sanctity of the voter list – the foundation of Indian democracy – cannot be compromised through legally dubious measures, especially when doubts already cloud the Election Commission’s impartiality.

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