Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa who disagreed in decisions taken by the Election Commission to clear Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah of allegedly violating poll code has reportedly, since May 4, recused himself from all meetings to discuss Model Code of Conduct (MCC) violations.
While PM Modi was given clearance in three cases, Shah was cleared in one incident of violation of the MCC. The decisions were taken based on 2:1 majority by a three-member “full commission” consisting of Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and fellow election commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra as per law.
Reportedly, Ashok Lavasa has opted out of the decision making meetings on MCC claiming his “minority decisions were going unrecorded”.
NDTV quoted a letter by Lavasa to the Chief Election Commissioner as saying, “I am being forced to stay away from the meetings of the full commission since minority decisions are not being recorded.” “My participation in the deliberations of the Commission becomes meaningless since my minority decisions go unrecorded.”
“I 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,” the letter further read.
According to the Chief Election Commissioner, only minority views in quasi-judicial proceedings can be recorded in the orders and as the decisions on poll code complaints are not quasi-judicial proceedings, the minority views need not be recorded.
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