Law ministry clarifies on ECs ‘informal’ meet with PMO

New Delhi, Dec 18: The government on Saturday clarified that the PMO's 'informal interaction' with the Election Commissioners, was meant for a secretary of the poll panel or a representative of the CEC, to iron out differences over electoral reforms.

In a statement, the law ministry said the Prime Minister's Office had written to the cabinet secretary, the law secretary and the legislative secretary for a meeting on November 16 on common electoral rolls.

The meeting on 16.11.2021 was a virtual meeting and no physical meeting was organized in the PMO. The said virtual meeting was attended by the Officials of Government of India and officials of Election Commission of India.

After the meeting of Officials, certain issues required further fine-tuning. These issues include the number of qualifying dates for updation of electoral roll, some aspects of Aadhaar linkage and requisition of premises.

After the Official meeting, a separate informal interaction was held virtually with the Chief Election Commissioner and the two Election Commissioners. It may be noted that the discussion was held together with all three Commissioners of ECI, and virtually.

It is important to note that subsequent to these deliberations with the Election Commission, a proposal was drafted by the Legislative Department which was placed for consideration before the Union Cabinet that has approved proposal for introducing "The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 during the current session of the Parliament.

It is reiterated that the Legislative Department organises meetings with officers of the Election Commission and other relevant government departments in matters related to electoral reforms. The meeting of 16.11.2021 was to finalise the Cabinet Note on some of the reforms and it was held virtually. The subsequent interaction with the Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners was an informal one and meant for ironing out two or three aspects for the final proposal.