ECI enjoys unbridled power and authority from the reservoirs of Article 324 of the Constitution of India in its onerous tasks to conduct free and fair poll. For this, all organs of the state are at its beck and call. Even the judiciary is barred to intervene once the process of elections is set in motion with the announcement of poll and enforcement of model code of conduct. Courts come in the picture only post election results or on conclusion of the process of electioneering. ECI’s decision to defer dates of Gujarat State Assembly Elections breaks with past decisions that raises question mark over its autonomy and fairness in public esteem, in view of the high bar raised by his distinguished predecessor T.N.Seshan in the 1980s since followed meticulously by the ECI.

Decision of ECI to defer announcement of Gujarat State Assembly Elections dates has afforded unfair advantages to the ruling BJP in announcing sops to the voters (people) vis-à-vis rival parties thus raising doubts about fairness of the august Constitutional institution of the ECI. It has decimated its public credibility and diluted its suzerainty, as a continuing process of defiling and demolishing integrity of other public institutions by the current NDA Union Government.

Germane to the impartiality or otherwise of current CEC Achal Kumar Joti is one document in a case filed by a senior police official at the Guwahati Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) showing that CEC Achal Kumar Joti had not vacated bungalow allotted to him in Ahmedabad while in Gujarat Government service more than a year after he took over as Election Commissioner since elevated as CEC, a position that requires him to function independently without fear and favour with attendant impartiality and fairness. Before joining ECI, A.K.Joti was Chief Secretary of Gujarat.
Constitution of India enjoins ECI to conduct free and fair poll. While conducting poll ECI should not only appear to be conducting free and fair poll but be seen to be doing so. Let the people draw their own conclusion whether the current CEC has been fair!