Two Election Commissioners — Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr Vivek Joshi — wrote separately to Cabinet Secretary T. V. Somanathan on July 29, 2026, raising concerns about Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg and seeking action, and the Cabinet Secretariat decided not to intervene, according to records released under the Right to Information (RTI) Act to activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd). The Hindu first reported the RTI reply, and The Daily Jagran published the file notings in detail on Friday.

Source: The Daily Jagran

The commissioners alleged — an allegation, not a proven finding — that Garg, after taking temporary charge as link officer for the Deputy Election Commissioner (Administration) on July 28 during another officer's leave, issued an order revising the work allocation of equivalent and senior officers without discussing it with the Commission or the officers concerned, despite repeated oral and written instructions against taking such steps without prior discussion and approval.

Source: The Hindu via Tech Word News

Why the Cabinet Secretariat declined to act

A Cabinet Secretariat note on August 3 first suggested seeking the Chief Election Commissioner's opinion. By August 4, the final noting took the opposite course: the Commission is a constitutional body 'insulated from executive interference' by design; the two letters were written in the commissioners' individual capacity and could not be treated as a formal communication from the Commission as a whole; and, in that situation, any action 'may also be construed as interference in the functioning of the Constitutional Body'.

Instead of action, the Secretariat sent acknowledgements to both commissioners on August 5, copied to the Department of Personnel and Training secretary, the establishment officer and the principal private secretary to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar 'for information' of the CEC. The papers were placed on record so they could be taken into account in future decisions regarding Garg, who was appointed to the Commission by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on September 2, 2024.

The Commission's own clarification

The Election Commission had earlier, on September 26, issued a point-by-point clarification after The Indian Express reported the letters: it said the work-redistribution orders issued by the officer concerned were never implemented following the two commissioners' directions, and that the letters concerned an officer on deputation and did not relate to policy or IT-division matters. The RTI disclosure adds the government's internal handling of the complaint to a dispute that has played out alongside the wider row over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, though the RTI report itself does not mention the SIR process.