‘He can’t enjoy immunity’: TMC’s Mahua Moitra files police complaint against CEC, seeks FIR

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra filed an official complaint against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar at the Parliament Street police station on Thursday, seeking the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against him. Her complaint follows media reports indicating that two fellow Election Commissioners had raised formal objections to multiple decisions taken by the poll body during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

Police have received the complaint submitted by the Lok Sabha MP, though an FIR is yet to be registered.

In her filing, Moitra cited a news report from The Indian Express stating that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally recorded objections at least 14 times over the past 10 months regarding Election Commission orders, specifically concerning voter addition, deletion, restoration and registration process modifications.

Asserting that the CEC overstepped his constitutional mandate, Moitra emphasised that the Chief Election Commissioner has “no power to act for the Commission against the recorded opinion of both his colleagues, and none whatsoever to issue communications in its name which it has never approved”. She further raised concerns over potential financial impropriety, noting that substantial public funds were sanctioned and released for the SIR exercise.

Addressing statutory protections, the TMC leader argued that while Section 16 of the CEC and EC Act, 2023 grants immunity to election commissioners from court proceedings for official actions, “it says nothing about registering a First Information Report or an investigation, which are statutory duties cast upon the police and are not proceedings before a court at all”.

Elaborating on her legal stance to reporters outside the station, Moitra said, “They cannot also get on the rolls. So this is criminal conduct, and they cannot hide behind Section 16 of the CEC and EC Act of 2023. That gives you immunity from discharging your official function. Your official function is when you act along with three commissioners as an election commission. If you turn rogue and turn a criminal, and you do not listen to the other two election commissioners, you serve all power.”

She maintained that Gyanesh Kumar could not claim immunity as his actions lacked collective authorisation. “All the decisions taken by Gyanesh Kumar were certainly not majority decisions. The decisions conveyed on behalf of the Election Commission were actually falsified because they were done by one person without the consent of the other two. Hence, he cannot enjoy immunity and is open to prosecution,” she said.

Highlighting the voter disenfranchisement concerns caused by the exercise, she added, “Today, all over India, 13 crore voters have been deleted. What will happen to their children? What will happen to their children who turn 18?”

In her submission, Moitra formally requested, “In consideration of the above facts, I request that a First Information Report be registered and the offences investigated, that the role of each person involved be ascertained, that the relevant witnesses, including the two Election Commissioners, be examined, and that the evidence be secured without delay so as to prevent its destruction or manipulation.”

Following the publication of The Indian Express report, Election Commission officials acknowledged that the two commissioners had raised concerns regarding electoral roll cleanup and voter database management across various states. However, EC sources maintained that all official decisions, including those regarding the SIR exercise, were taken unanimously with full approval from both Election Commissioners and the CEC.

PTI