Collegiality in the Election Commission is essential to its independence. Discuss with reference to recent controversies.

The Election Commission of India is a multi-member body, and Section 10 of the CEC and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023 requires its business to be transacted unanimously as far as possible, failing which by majority [1]. Recent reporting on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) suggests this collegiality is weakening.

Why collegiality underpins independence

• Internal check: with three members, a majority rule ensures no single functionary can commit the Commission [1]; deliberation substitutes for the judicial review that Article 324 powers largely escape.
• Diffused pressure: external influence must capture three offices, not one — the very logic of moving from a single-member to a multi-member Commission.
• Recorded reasoning: file notings and dissent create an audit trail, strengthening public trust in roll revision, which relies on ERO and BLO verification at every deletion [2].

Recent controversies

• Media investigations report that two of the three Commissioners objected repeatedly during the SIR, and that several decisions were taken without their knowledge — allegations, not adjudicated findings.
• Objections reportedly concerned changes to Form 6 without amending the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and software-generated flagging of lakhs of electors in West Bengal, bypassing the ERO's statutory role.
• The Commission maintains that SIR follows a phased process with house-to-house enumeration, draft publication and a claims-and-objections window [2].

Structural roots of the deficit

• The 2023 Act replaced the CJI on the selection committee — directed in Anoop Baranwal (2023) — with a Union Cabinet Minister, giving the executive a majority [3].
• An Election Commissioner can be removed only on the CEC's recommendation, unlike the CEC [3]; salary is pegged to the Cabinet Secretary, fixed by government [3].
• The ECI still lacks the independent secretariat urged by the Goswami Committee [3].

Collegiality is not etiquette but the statutory design of an impartial referee. Restoring a neutral voice on the selection committee, granting Commissioners parity of tenure protection, and creating an independent secretariat would convert internal deliberation from convention into guarantee — securing the free and fair elections that Articles 324 and 326 promise.