EC members not meant to be clones: CEC on Lavasa’s letter

New Delhi, May 18

Against the backdrop of Commissioner Ashok Lavasa recusing himself from model code violation cases till his dissents are recorded on orders, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora on Saturday said members of the panel were not supposed to be “clones” of each other and divergence of views was natural.

On a day that Lavasa’s decision to recuse from code of conduct complaints became public, the EC said the ‘full commission’ would meet on May 21 to discuss the issue of dissent and “related matters”.

In an unprecedented move, Arora came out with a statement on the differences coming out in open, saying the episode was “unsavoury” and “avoidable”.

When contacted, Lavasa said the issue was an “internal matter”.

Arora said in the last meeting of the commission on May 14, it was “unanimously” decided to form groups to deliberate on issues which arose in the course of conduct of Lok Sabha elections.  “Out of the 13 issues/areas which were identified, model code of conduct is one of them.”

He said the differences have come out in the past when a former CEC has written a book with details.

The law governing poll panel’s functioning states that preference should be for a unanimous view, but provide for a majority ruling.

In a strongly-worded letter to Arora, Lavasa is learnt to have said that he is being forced to stay away from the meetings of the ‘full commission’ since minority decisions are not being recorded. He is learnt to have said his participation is “meaningless”. 

The EC’s legal division had opined that dissent cannot be recorded on decisions as model code violations are not part of a quasi-judicial hearing where all three — the CEC and two fellow commissioners — sign. The majority view is conveyed to the parties concerned. The dissent remains recorded in the file only and not made public. — PTI

On different views

The three members of ECI are not expected to be template or clones of each other. There have been so many times in the past when there has been a vast divergence of views. But it largely remained within the confines of ECI. Sunil Arora, CEC