Former judges warn against 'vote theft' claims in letter backing Election Commission

A group of 42 former judges has issued an open letter warning that persistent, unsubstantiated allegations of "vote theft" risk destroying public faith in India's democratic systems.

The letter, issued on 7 October and addressed to the public, strongly defends the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the higher judiciary. The signatories, who include former Supreme Court Justices Hemant Gupta and Pankaj Mittal, described the recent wave of criticism as a "sustained attack" driven by "vested political interests."

"Criticism of institutions is a democratic right. Denigration is not," the letter stated, pointing to the growing use of terms like "thieves", "puppets" and "compromised" to describe constitutional authorities on public platforms.

The timing of the letter coincides with intense political disputes and opposition protests over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists. Prominent opposition figures, including Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, have recently led protests in New Delhi targeting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the exercise.

Defending the voter list revision

The former judges strongly defended the SIR process, describing it as a legally established exercise under Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act of 1950. The procedure is designed to maintain clean and accurate voter lists by removing duplicate entries, correcting relocations, and deleting the names of deceased citizens.

They noted that intensive voter list revisions are not new, having been carried out routinely since India's first general elections. Furthermore, they pointed out that two decades of rapid urbanisation and internal migration have made these updates essential to ensure legitimate voting.

The authors recalled that the Supreme Court has previously confirmed the SIR process as entirely lawful, pointing out that it includes robust safeguards such as public notifications, hearings, objections, and appeals. The campaign to cast suspicion on these updates continues, they wrote, "unabated, regardless of facts or consequences."

Call for evidence, not headlines

The letter criticised activist groups for filing multiple court petitions without sufficient evidence and then spreading doubts when judicial verdicts did not go their way. The judges also pointed out the hypocrisy of selectively questioning Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) only after an electoral defeat, while accepting the system when winning.

The scale of India's democracy is unprecedented, with nearly a billion voters casting ballots across more than a million polling stations, managed under the independent authority of Article 324 of the Constitution. The judges emphasised that this system has consistently allowed for the peaceful transfer of power across central and state governments.

"Trust is the currency of democracy," the signatories warned, adding that repeatedly telling citizens their votes do not count could trigger public unrest. "When the ballot loses meaning, the street gains it," they wrote, warning that such campaigns could empower fringe and anarchic groups.

The former judges urged political parties to present their grievances with genuine evidence before the ECI and the courts, rather than staging media events. They also called on the media to scrutinise claims before broadcasting them. "A headline is not evidence, and repetition does not make an allegation the truth," they wrote.