बेबाक · Editorial
From voter rolls to post-poll trials, the ballot needs guardians who answer for themselves
Recent orders and reversals across the Election Commission, the Supreme Court and the CBI show that electoral integrity depends on institutions following their own rules.
Three institutions, one test
An election begins with the voter roll, depends on the officials who run polling day, and ends only when violence after the count has been prosecuted. In recent days all three stages have come under scrutiny. In a dispute over the special intensive revision of Delhi's rolls, the Supreme Court has said that the Election Commission cannot alter Forms 6, 7 and 8. The Commission has ordered Goa and four other states with Assembly polls in 2027 to transfer certain categories of officers directly connected with election work. The CBI has withdrawn nearly 20 petitions in which it had asked the Supreme Court to move trials in the 2021 West Bengal post-poll violence cases out of the state. Each episode is different. Together they ask whether these guardians are holding themselves to the standard they demand of others.
The roll is not a favour
The Delhi case shows the central tension most clearly. The Election Commission has a real duty to keep the rolls accurate, and an inflated or outdated roll is itself a threat to a fair vote. That is the strongest case for the revision. But the Supreme Court questioned the practice of making existing voters fill Form 6, the form for enrolment, in order to be re-enrolled. It also advised the Commission to extend deadlines for electors who had been deleted in Delhi. The Court has said the Commission cannot alter these forms. A citizen already on the roll should not have to prove again that they exist. The burden of the state's housekeeping belongs to the state.
Neutral hands on polling day
The transfer order for Goa and the four other states going to the polls in 2027 is a sensible use of the Commission's authority. Officers who hold posts directly tied to election work can become too familiar with local power networks. Moving them before a poll protects both the voter and the officer. Critics sometimes describe such orders as disruptive to administration, and that concern is not trivial for states with thin cadres. Still, a temporary administrative cost is a fair price for public confidence. The same Commission that is right to insist on neutral officials, however, must also show that its own procedures, including the forms citizens are made to fill, follow the law.
Justice after the count
The CBI's withdrawal of its transfer petitions is harder to judge, and this newspaper will not guess at the agency's reasoning beyond what it has told the court. The agency did address, in withdrawing, the reasons that had led it to make the original request, but a fuller account on the public record would help. That request, to move trials out of West Bengal, implied serious doubts that justice could be done within the state. Withdrawing nearly 20 such petitions implies either that those doubts have been resolved or that the agency's assessment has changed. Either explanation may be legitimate. Victims of the 2021 violence and the accused alike, however, are owed clarity. A central investigating agency that first doubts that trials can proceed fairly in a state and then withdraws that doubt should explain, in detail, what changed. That explanation would serve the trials as much as it serves public trust.
What accountability requires
Some steps are practical and achievable. The Election Commission should act on the Supreme Court's guidance for Delhi without delay: extend the deadlines for deleted electors, reconsider requiring existing voters to use Form 6, and publish detailed figures on deletions and the reasons for them before any final roll is notified. It should issue a standing protocol so that future revisions in other states do not repeat the problem. For the transfer orders, the Commission should make public the categories of officers covered and the criteria used. The CBI should place its reasons for the withdrawal fully before the trial courts and the public, and commit to timelines for the 2021 cases. Elections are judged not only on polling day, but on whether the institutions around them can explain their choices.
A citizen already on the roll should not have to prove again that they exist. The burden of the state's housekeeping belongs to the state.
What this editorial rests on
Drawn from our live multi-newsroom feed — read the reporting at source.
An editorial is the considered opinion of the Aad Tak desk, argued from the sourced reporting above and written under our published persona, बेबाक. We name institutions, not parties. If we are wrong, we will say so. How we work →