Group of ex-judges dub Opposition attack on EC campaign without evidence

A group of 42 retired judges have defended the Election Commission of India (ECI) against the Opposition onslaught and backed the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, describing it as a lawful exercise.

In an open letter to the “people of India”, the former judges of the Supreme Court and former chief justices and judges of various high courts said they hold no brief for any political party but felt compelled to speak as “silence is no longer a neutral choice”.

The signatories include Former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi High Court BC Patel, Former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, former Supreme Court judges Hemant Gupta and Pankaj Mittal. The Opposition INDIA bloc leaders have accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of revising electoral rolls to benefit the BJP and have sought his resignation. Both the BJP and the commission have rejected the allegation.

The former judges claimed that India’s constitutional bodies are under “sustained attack”, with the Election Commission of India at the centre of the assault.

“Even the higher judiciary, which we hold in high esteem, and statutory agencies have not been spared,” the letter pointed out. They said the attacks were not reasoned criticism but appeared to be a “calculated campaign” driven by vested political interests, with little regard for the potentially devastating consequences of “destabilising the world’s largest democracy”.

The former judges described the attacks on the poll panel and other institutions as a “campaign without evidence”. “Criticism of institutions is a democratic right. Denigration is not. Constitutional authorities are now branded ‘thieves’, ‘puppets’ and ‘compromised’ from public platforms,” they lamented. On the SIR, the former judges noted that the electoral law empowers the EC to carry out revision of electoral rolls at any time.

They said SIRs had been carried out repeatedly since the first general elections, with the last such exercise completed about two decades ago. “No one called those revisions a conspiracy,” they said. The former judges said the allegations of “vote theft” are made at press conferences, “not before courts”.

“When the commission seeks a sworn declaration, none is filed. Electronic Voting Machines are blamed only after defeat. Victories won on the same machines go unquestioned,” the letter said.

In an apparent reference to the Congress, they said a party that governed the nation for over five decades now claims that the

very system which elected it is rigged. “It does not act alone. Activist outfits with a long record of selective litigation lend these claims a veneer of legality,” it said. They file petition, “one after the other” but seldom give proof. The courtroom becomes a stage, and when the judgment is delivered, it is criticised whenever it does not serve their interests, the letter said.

“Vitriol is then amplified and disseminated on an industrial scale, with the deliberate aim of eroding public confidence in a well-established and widely trusted judicial system,” they said.

On Tuesday, the INDIA bloc MPs marched from Parliament, and Rahul Gandhi observed an eight-hour sit-in at Akashvani Bhawan. On Wednesday, the scene shifted to nearby Jantar Mantar as Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders held a street protest against Kumar before being detained by the police later in the evening.

Thursday marked the third day of continuous protests in the national capital by top Opposition leaders.