Ninety-eight former civil servants have accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of turning the Election Commission of India (ECI) into “an instrument of State power”. Their open letter came out on Wednesday as opposition parties in Delhi pressed their demand for his resignation.
The Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG) is a collective of retired officers from the All India and Central Services. It said the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls under CEC Gyanesh Kumar was designed “to exclude and disenfranchise millions of genuine voters for brazenly unconstitutional, partisan and political ends”.
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The letter also warns the two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. It says that by ratifying the CEC’s decisions at a meeting on 26 September, they have made themselves “liable to the charge of participating in a cover up”.
The signatories include, amongst others, Ashok Lavasa, former Election Commissioner; G.K. Pillai, former Union Home Secretary; Najeeb Jung, former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi; Julio Ribeiro, former Director General of Police, Punjab; Wajahat Habibullah, former Chief Information Commissioner; Meeran Borwankar, former Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development; K. Sujatha Rao, former Union Health Secretary; Meena Gupta, former Union Environment Secretary; Harsh Mander, former IAS officer; and Ashish Joshi, former Principal Controller of Communications Accounts, North Zone.
What the Letter Says About CEC Gyanesh Kumar
The group describes the conduct of the ECI as “the most glaring example of wilful disregard of constitutional ethics”. It notes that the commission is currently made up entirely of former IAS officers.
According to the letter, the SIR turned a routine administrative procedure into an exercise with “no precedent, no clear basis in law, and no verified necessity”. It says the commission shifted the burden onto citizens to prove they were eligible to vote, overturned “the natural presumption of citizenship” in their favour, and introduced “lineage as the basis of voting rights”. Many people were asked for documents they did not have, even when they were already on the rolls.
The former officers say the stated aim of “purification” of the rolls “created panic and fear in large sections of the Indian population”. They argue the exercise risks creating “a class of stateless residents”.
“This has been a particularly egregious example of political partisanship perhaps unparalleled in the history of independent India,” the letter says. It adds that the officers responsible “have damaged the very foundations of our electoral democracy”.
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Internal Dissent at the Commission
The letter cites recent reporting by the Indian Express on the “unilateral manner of functioning” of CEC Gyanesh Kumar and a group of his lieutenants. The paper reported on 23 September that Mr Sandhu and Mr Joshi had raised objections at least 14 times over 10 months. Their objections concerned decisions on deletions, restorations and appeals that were reportedly issued without their knowledge.
According to the Indian Express, Mr Joshi warned in May against changing Form 6, the voter enrolment form, without amending the rules. Mr Sandhu later called an added question about an applicant’s presence on earlier rolls “unauthorised and illegal”.
After the report, the three commissioners met on 26 September. The commission then said the original SIR order of 24 June 2025 had been approved unanimously. It announced a committee, including an independent IIT or IIIT expert, to review access to its electoral database. It also said future meeting agendas would be circulated in advance.
The CCG letter says the two commissioners “acquiesced for months” even though the law, as the majority of the commission, allowed them to insist that their view prevail.
Supreme Court Scrutiny of CEC Gyanesh Kumar
The questions have now reached the Supreme Court. On 5 October, a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant issued notices to the Election Commission and the Centre on a petition. The petition seeks a declaration that the CEC exercised his powers unlawfully without the approval of his fellow commissioners.
The court declined to suspend him, citing possible disruption to election work. It did contradict the commission’s claim that the courts had upheld the changed form. “Any modified Form 6 has not been approved by us. Let us be clear. When the record is produced, we would like to see who has modified,” the Chief Justice said.
The Election Commission has maintained that the SIR is needed to remove duplicate and ineligible entries from the rolls.
Protests in Delhi
The letter arrives at a tense moment. On Tuesday, police briefly detained opposition MPs, including the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, during a march towards the commission’s headquarters. Delhi Police have since registered an FIR against Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi for allegedly entering Akashvani Bhawan without authorisation. “The election commission is a puppet in the hands of the government,” the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said.
On Wednesday, Mr Kharge hosted opposition MPs at a lunch meeting to plan their next steps. Saurav Das, leader of the Cockroach Janta Party, the youth movement behind the summer’s education protests, told reporters that his group would not leave the streets “until Gyanesh Kumar resigns”. The group has announced a demonstration at Jantar Mantar on 10 October.
Earlier this week, another group of signatories, including former bureaucrats, wrote to the CEC urging him to resign. In April, the Rajya Sabha Chairman and the Lok Sabha Speaker rejected an opposition notice seeking his removal.
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Wider Charges Against the Bureaucracy
The CCG letter goes beyond the ECI. It criticises the Delhi Police’s handling of the youth protest at Jantar Mantar and the attempted march to Parliament on 20 July. It says some officers “showed excessive enthusiasm in the use of force”, including lathi charges, tear gas and pellet guns. The protests, over the NEET paper leak, ended with the resignation of the Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, on 25 July.
It also accuses officers in the Enforcement Directorate, CBI, Income Tax department and Narcotics Control Bureau of being “complicit in the unnecessary harassment” of the government’s perceived opponents. In such cases, it says, “the process of justice itself” becomes the punishment.
The group criticises officials in one state for showering flower petals on Kanwar yatris while forcing Muslim-owned meat shops to close. It also cites the continued demolition of minority-owned properties despite Supreme Court orders.
On the environment, the letter says nearly 98% of submitted projects receive environmental clearance. It says clearances rose from 577 in 2018 to over 12,000 in a single year by 2022, which “would not have been possible without the active participation” of IAS and Indian Forest Service officers.
An Appeal to Serving Officers
The letter is addressed to serving officers. It quotes Sardar Patel’s 1949 warning: “If you do not give your honest opinion for fear that it will displease your minister, please then you had better go.”
The signatories accept that today’s officers work in an environment “far less accommodative and broadminded” than theirs. They say institutions such as the judiciary and the media can no longer be relied on as a fallback. Even so, they ask officers to follow the law where it conflicts with orders, “even where it causes personal inconvenience”.
“As your seniors in service, we will always support you in these endeavours,” the letter concludes.
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