Election Commission split over SIR, report says; profiles of the three officers

The Election Commission is in the news these days over SIR, the Special Intensive Revision. Amid this, a report has revealed that there are differences within the Election Commission itself over the SIR process. The report mentions objections raised by two election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, on certain decisions related to the electoral rolls. The report also claims that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has been taking unilateral decisions within the Commission.

The report has also reportedly raised questions on issues relating to adding new voters, deleting names, and access to voter data. Responding to these allegations, the Election Commission has said that differing opinions and observations are normal in a multi-member constitutional body, and that all final decisions taken over the past year have been by mutual consent. Here is a look at the administrative careers of the three officers currently heading the Election Commission.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is a 1988-batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre. He holds a BTech in civil engineering from IIT Kanpur, and has also studied business finance and environmental economics at Harvard University. In Kerala, he has served as sub-collector, district collector, municipal commissioner and in senior positions in various departments. In the central government, he was joint secretary and additional secretary in the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Home Affairs. He later served as secretary of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and the Ministry of Cooperation. During his time at the Home Ministry, he also worked on matters related to Jammu and Kashmir. He was appointed election commissioner in 2024 and took charge as India's 26th Chief Election Commissioner on February 19, 2025. His tenure has seen the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Jammu and Kashmir assembly election, and the assembly elections in Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Delhi.

Sukhbir Singh Sandhu is also a 1988-batch IAS officer, but of the Uttarakhand cadre. He was chief secretary of Uttarakhand from July 2021 to January 2024. Before that, he was chairman of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for about two years. In the central government, as additional secretary in the Department of Higher Education, he handled matters related to the IITs and IIMs. He has also held several key positions in the governments of Uttarakhand, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Sandhu was made election commissioner on March 25, 2024. According to the Election Commission, he holds an MBBS degree and a postgraduate degree in history.

Dr Vivek Joshi is a 1989-batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre. He joined the Election Commission as election commissioner on February 19, 2025. Before that, he was chief secretary of Haryana. Joshi has served as secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training and the Department of Financial Services in the central government, and has also held the post of Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. In Haryana, he has been deputy commissioner of Jind, Hisar and Panchkula, and divisional commissioner of Ambala. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Roorkee University. He also has an executive master's in international business, and a master's and PhD in international economics from Geneva. He has also served as a board member of the RBI and SBI.