'Criticism is a democratic right, denigration is not': 42 retired judges defend EC in open letter

A group of 42 retired judges, including former Supreme Court judges and former chief justices and judges of various high courts, have defended the Election Commission of India (ECI) against opposition criticism and backed its special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

In an open letter addressed to the "people of India", the former judges said they did not hold a brief for any political party but felt compelled to speak out as "silence is no longer a neutral choice".

The signatories include former Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi High Court Chief Justice B C Patel, former Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, and former Supreme Court judges Hemant Gupta and Pankaj Mittal.

The INDIA bloc has accused Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar of manipulating electoral rolls to benefit the BJP and has sought his resignation. The BJP and the ECI have rejected the allegations.

The former judges said constitutional institutions were facing a "sustained attack", with the Election Commission at the centre of the criticism. They described the allegations against the poll panel and other institutions as a "calculated campaign" driven by political interests and called it a "campaign without evidence".

"Criticism of institutions is a democratic right. Denigration is not," they said, objecting to constitutional authorities being publicly branded as "thieves", "puppets" and "compromised".

On SIR, the former judges said electoral law empowers the ECI to revise electoral rolls and noted that similar exercises had been conducted repeatedly since the first general elections. They said the last such nationwide exercise was carried out around two decades ago.

The letter also questioned allegations of "vote theft", saying such claims were often made at press conferences rather than in courts. They pointed to the absence of sworn declarations when the commission sought them and alleged that concerns over electronic voting machines were raised selectively after electoral defeats.

Without naming the Congress, the judges said a party that had governed the country for decades was now questioning the electoral system that had enabled it to win elections.

They also criticised activist groups for filing repeated petitions without, in their view, providing sufficient evidence, alleging that court proceedings were sometimes used as a platform for political campaigns and that judgments were attacked when they did not favour the petitioners.

The letter came amid continued opposition protests against the Election Commission. On Tuesday, INDIA bloc MPs marched from Parliament, while Congress leader Rahul Gandhi staged an eight-hour sit-in at Akashvani Bhawan. The protes

ts shifted to Jantar Mantar on Wednesday, where Gandhi and other opposition leaders demonstrated against CEC Gyanesh Kumar before being detained by police.

Thursday marked the third consecutive day of protests by senior opposition leaders in the national capital.
(With PTI inputs)