Dissent not recorded, Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa skips meetings on poll code violations: Report

Protesting Election Commission's decision to not record his dissent, Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa has recused himself from attending poll panel meetings on deciding violations of the Model Code of Conduct, media reports said today. 

According to an NDTV report, Lavasa wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora on May 4 saying that he was "forced to stay away" from meetings as his "minority decisions were not being unrecorded".

"I am being forced to stay away from the meetings of the full commission since minority decisions are not being recorded," Lavasa said in the letter. 

The "full commission", which takes such decisions, comprises Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and fellow election commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra.

"My participation in the deliberations of the Commission becomes meaningless since my minority decisions go unrecorded," Lavasa wrote in the letter to Arora. 

According to earlier reports, Lavasa gave a dissenting view in the Election Commission's (EC) decision to give a clean chit to Modi as regards his speech at Wardha on April 1, where he attacked Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for contesting from the minority-dominated Wayanad seat in Kerala, and his appeal to first-time voters by invoking the Balakot airstrike and the CRPF jawans killed in the Pulwama terror attack in Latur on April 9.

The decisions were taken based on 2:1 majority as per prescribed law which governs the functioning of the poll panel, the EC sources had said. While it gave clean chit to Prime Minister, the Commission chose not to pass an order, thereby pre-empting the opportunity for dissent to be recorded. 

Lavasa wrote that he might consider taking recourse to other measures aimed at restoring the lawful functioning of the Commission in terms of recording minority decisions."   

"My various notes on the need for transparency in the recording and disclosure of all decisions including the minority view have gone unheeded, forcing me to withdraw from participating in the deliberations on the complaints," he added. 

The letter was recived on May 4, the day the EC gave Modi a clean chit for a speech delivered on April 21 in Gujarat's Patan, where he claimed that he had warned Pakistan of consequences if it had not returned Indian Air Force pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

Arora immediately called a meeting with Lavasa after getting the letter. The CEC said minority views are recorded only in quasi-judicial proceedings. The decisions on poll code complaints are not quasi-judicial proceedings, hence minority views need not be recorded, he said. 

The Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991 states that if the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners differ in opinion on any matter, such matter shall be decided according to the opinion of the majority.

The Commission transacts its business by holding regular meetings and also by circulation of papers. All Election Commissioners have equal say in the decision making of the Commission.