ECI should follow SC

 As Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi superannuates, he will be remembered for agreeing to public disclosure by ruling that the office of the CJI fell within the ambit of the Right to Information Act. The decision will bolster the credibility of the judiciary in the public eye. Whether the queries under the RTI Act are tenable or frivolous is not the point. What is of note is that the apex court has agreed that it is not above the law, dispelling the forbidding image of the judiciary, couched in legalese and the threat of contempt proceedings. The decision has come with a rider of the ‘independence of judiciary’ which is difficult to grudge because checks and balances are imperative when it comes to dealing with the other two branches of government -executive and legislature. This should also lead to strong demands to bring the Election Commission of India also under RTI. The ECI has been resisting the demand to bring its functioning within the purview of RTI Act. The Election Commission had rejected the application saying the EVMs held by it do not come under the definition of "information". However, the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) has ruled that an Electronic Voting Machine is "information" under the Right to Information Act and can be demanded by an applicant from the Election Commission of India on a payment of Rs 10, the Central Information Commission has ruled. This implied the Election Commission has to respond to an RTI application seeking the EVM either by providing it or refusing it under exemption clauses in the Act. That can however, be contested before the CIC, the highest adjudicating authority in RTI matters. One of the clauses Section 8(1)(d) exempts information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information. The issue of larger public interest in the wake of allegations of EVM tampering was not mentioned in the order. Several opposition leaders have raised "doubts" over EVMs and their functioning before the Election Commission. The opposition parties had sought moving back to the ballot paper, but after the EC made it clear there was no going back. In a meeting with the ECI recently, Opposition leaders demanded the poll panel ensure that 50 per cent of EVM results are crosschecked with voter-verifiable paper audit trails (VVPAT) before declaration of results in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The leaders had told the Election Commission the people of the country doubted the efficacy of EVMs and this issue needs to be redressed. The outgoing CJI Ranjan Gogoi has left his imprint over the so-called infallibility of the CJI and also the court to public scrutiny. If the Supreme Court, which is the custodian of the constitution, is open to scrutiny, there is no reason why the ECI which is merely a conductor of elections, can be allowed to hide beneath clichés when election is the most crucial nutrient of democracy. People have every right to seek reasonable and constitutionally valid clarifications or explanations from the ECI and so, there is no way out but to follow suit what the Supreme Court has done.