The direction comes in a work allocation order dated November 4. The order takes effect immediately, in partial modification of an office order dated September 23, 2025.
The Election Commission of India (EC) has said that its director general of information technology, Seema Khanna, will route files of the divisions she heads through senior deputy election commissioner Pawan Kumar Sharma.
It said the office order of July 28, 2026, was issued “by an IAS officer of the rank of Additional Secretary who had been posted on deputation to the Election Commission”, and was never implemented. On July 29, the two election commissioners “wrote separate letters to the Cabinet Secretary in relation to this order”, the affidavit said. “In view of the joint direction dated 30 July 2026 by the two Election Commissioners, the order of 28 July 2026 was never implemented,” the affidavit said. In a press note issued after The Indian Express reported on the two commissioners’ objections in September, the EC said the letter to the cabinet secretary “was not related to any policy matter of the Commission or IT division but related to working of an officer on deputation to ECI”. “The work re-distribution orders issued by the concerned officer were not actually implemented after the orders of the two Commissioners and the oversight over the IT division by the DEC was never actually withdrawn,” the press note said.
