New Delhi, Oct 08 : In a rare collective intervention, 42 former judges of the Supreme Court and various High Courts have issued an open letter to the people of India, expressing grave concern over what they describe as a calculated campaign to undermine the country’s constitutional institutions, with the Election Commission of India (ECI) at the centre of this assault.
The signatories include former Supreme Court judges Hemant Gupta and Pankaj Mittal, along with former High Court Chief Justices B C Patel, Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, and Permod Kohli. The letter, titled “In Defence of Our Constitutional Institutions, states that silence is no longer a neutral choice in the current political climate.
The former judges draw a sharp distinction between democratic criticism and what they term denigration. They note that constitutional authorities are increasingly branded thieves, puppets, and compromised from public platforms.
Allegations of ‘vote theft’ are made at press conferences, before courts. When the Commission seeks a sworn declaration, none is filed. Electronic Voting Machines are blamed only after defeat. Victories won on the same machines go unquestioned, the letter states.
It adds A party that governed this nation for over five decades now claims that the very system which elected it is rigged.
The signatories also take aim at what they call selective litigation by activist outfits, alleging that petitions are filed one after the other but seldom file proof. They argue that this approach turns the courtroom into a stage and that vitriol is then amplified and disseminated on an industrial scale, with the deliberate aim of eroding public confidence” in the judiciary.
On the controversy surrounding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the former judges point to Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which empowers the Commission to revise rolls at any time. They note that intensive revisions have been carried out repeatedly since the first general elections, with the last one completed two decades ago.
The purpose is simple: Remove the names of the dead, the duplicate entries of the same name, the names of those who have shifted their residence to another place and to include the names of every eligible citizen,” the letter states. A clean roll protects every genuine vote.
The judges also cite the Supreme Court’s endorsement of the SIR, noting that the top court upheld it as lawful and within the Commission’s powers, founded on a legitimate purpose with adequate safeguards of notice, hearing, objection and appeal.
Warning of the consequences of sustained delegitimisation, the former judges write, Tell citizens often enough that their vote does not count, and they stop believing in the ballot. When the ballot loses meaning, the street gains it.
They call for shared responsibility among political parties, the media, constitutional bodies, and citizens. “Political parties must contest elections without delegitimising them… The media must not amplify conjecture and speculation without first scrutinising and verifying the claims… Constitutional bodies must stand firm, remain transparent, and address legitimate concerns with clarity.
The letter concludes: Constitutional bodies do not belong to any government; they belong to the people of India. An attack on their credibility is, ultimately, an attack on the institutions that safeguard the citizens’ democratic rights.
Among those who signed the letter are former Supreme Court judges Hemant Gupta and Pankaj Mittal; former High Court Chief Justices B C Patel (J&K and Delhi), Subhro Kamal Mukherjee (Karnataka), Permod Kohli (Sikkim), and S M Soni (Gujarat, also former Lokayukta); and former judges S N Dhingra (Delhi), Krishna S Dixit (Karnataka and Orissa), Sridhar Rao (Karnataka), R S Rathore (Rajasthan), Prashant Kumar Agarwal (Rajasthan), K K Trivedi, D K Paliwal, Rakesh Saksena, Rajendra Kumar, Subhash Samvatsar, Ved Prakash Sharma, Alok Verma, I S Shrivastava, Subhash Sakrikar, S P Khare, and P N Singh (all M P High Court); Devender Kr Arora, Surendra Vikram Singh Rathore, and S N Srivastav (Allahabad High Court, the latter also former Lokayukta of Chhattisgarh); Ramesh Kumar Merathia (Jharkhand); Karam Chand Puri and Raj Rahul Garg (Punjab & Haryana); C V Nagarjuna Reddy (Andhra); Vinod Goel, G P Mittal, V B Gupta, and Deepa Sharma (Delhi); P N Ravindran and Jyothindranath (Kerala); Lokpal Singh, Subash Chandra, and Vivek Bharti Sharma (Uttarakhand); Narender Kumar; Rajender Kumar (former District & Session Judge and Adjudicating Officer, Gurugram RERA Authority); Subhash Batra (former Member (Legal), PNGRB); and J A P Shrivastava (M P High Court).
