Oversight layer intact, says EC official after poll panel tweaks work order for IT chief Seema Khanna

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Thursday said there is no change in the supervisory authority to which its director general of information technology Seema Khanna reports.The clarification came a day after the panel issued a fresh work allocation placing Khanna under the charge of deputy election commissioner Prakash Raj Purohit instead of senior deputy EC Manish Garg.A controversy had erupted after Garg issued an order on July 28 asking Khanna to report directly to the Election Commission, comprising Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Vivek Joshi and SS Sandhu.Garg had issued the order after deputy EC Sanjay Kumar, to whom Khanna had been reporting, was transferred to the Delhi government. The change effectively removed an intermediary layer of oversight, allowing Khanna to report directly to the Election Commission.ECs Sandhu and Joshi objected to the order and subsequently wrote separate letters to cabinet secretary TV Somanathan, raising concerns over the distribution of responsibilities. The order was then put in abeyance. The EC also told the Supreme Court that the July 28 work allocation order was never implemented.Asked whether Khanna had reported directly to the Commission between July 28 and November 4, without an added layer of a reporting boss in the form of a deputy EC, an election official on Thursday said: "Since the order was not implemented, Khanna was supervised by Garg after Sanjay Kumar moved out of the EC. Now, she will report to Raj Purohit, who joined as deputy EC a few days ago."Garg was the "link officer" for Kumar, which meant that Kumar's assigned tasks were transferred to Garg after he left the Election Commission.Why was Seema Khanna's role under scrutiny?Khanna's role had come under scrutiny amid concerns over the functioning of the electoral roll software and the exercise of powers by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs).According to a report by The Indian Express, the two Election Commissioners were concerned that field-level officers, who are legally responsible for preparing electoral rolls, were unable to perform certain functions because the software did not permit them to do so.The permissions required to carry out these functions were reportedly controlled by the EC's IT division, headed by Khanna.The commissioners repeatedly raised concerns that powers legally vested in EROs were being increasingly centralised through the EC's IT system, potentially restricting the authority of officers responsible for preparing and revising electoral rolls.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.