For several decades since 1951, during conduct of elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has faced a lot of criticisms especially from politicians but it has managed to stay largely unscathed mainly as it made every effort to remain accountable. The ECI performs a thankless job and so in order to ensure free and fair elections it is crucial that the poll body remains independent. The indictments by two high courts- Calcutta and Madras- during the recent week, highlights the fact that the ECI’s reputation has reached a nadir. On April 26,2021 the Madra High Court had strongly pulled down the ECI for allowing political rallies across five states that went to the polls through various phases beginning from March 27 and the last phase(eighth) on April 28,2021, at a time when states were grappling with the second wave of COVID-19. It has been an open secret for some time that the poll body was unable to enforce its own guidelines. The Model Code of Conduct had been often flouted with impunity but the ECI took note only on selective cases and imposed a token ban on campaigning by leaders, who then repeat the offence. The second wave of COVID-19 spiked transmissions in the poll-bound states. The Madras High Court reprimanded the ECI for failing to ensure strict adherence to COVID-19 norms and blamed it for being “singularly responsible” for accelerating the second wave. In fact, the Madras High Court even went to the extent of suggesting that the election commission officers should be booked on murder charges. When the counsel for the ECI maintained that measures had been taken to curb the spread of COVID-19, the chief justice of the high court slammed “were you on another planet when political rallies were being held?.” Earlier on April 22, on hearing three public interest litigations (PILs) seeking enforcement of Covid protocol during the West Bengal elections, a division bench presided by Chief Justice T B N Radhakrishnan said issuance of circulars and holding meetings on Covid safety were not enough and sought an affidavit by the poll body. Even in July 2019, a group of 64 retired civil servants backed by seasoned academics and retired military personnel had accused the ECI of glaring bias in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and alleged that it was “one of the least free and fair elections that the country has had in the past three decades”. The group of 64 accused ECI of blatant acts of omission and commission that had compelled former CECs to reluctantly, question the decisions of the ECI. On March 15,2021 the Citizens’ Commission on Elections (CCE), chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Madan B Lokur, which examines critical aspects of conducting elections, released the second part of its report. CCE cited the decision of then CEC James Michael Lyngdoh in 2002 , who refused to hold elections in riot-torn Gujarat even after then BJP chief minister Narendra Modi dissolved the house and sought elections. CCE pointed this as an instance where the ECI proved its independence. The CCE report red-flagged 2019 as the flashpoint from whence “grave doubts” were raised about the freedom and fairness of India’s general elections- the world’s largest democratic exercise. The CCE alleged that the ECI was drifting away from Article 324, which gives the ECI plenipotentiary powers to steer the electoral process.