Report flags feature to centrally control access on ECINET

Why in the News

The law gives each constituency’s Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) authority over the electoral roll, but an audit finds that ECINET, the Election Commission’s unified portal, lets a central switch cut off officers’ access State by State. The audit by civic tech initiative Charchagram follows objections by two Election Commissioners to centralising ECINET and the roll database.

What is ECINET, and who is meant to control the roll?

1. What it is: ECINET is the Election Commission of India (ECI)‘s unified digital portal for election officials, launched in January 2026. It works like a single office building whose front door every roll officer must pass through.
2. The statutory design: The Representation of the People Act, 1950 makes the ERO responsible for preparing and revising the roll. Article 324 gives the ECI superintendence, direction and control over that work.
3. Enumeration forms: In the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), a fresh house-to-house check of the roll, each voter fills an enumeration form, and officials review these forms on ECINET.
4. What is at stake: If the portal decides who may see those forms, whoever controls the portal controls what the ERO can do.
5. The takeaway: Authority written into law can be narrowed by access settings written into code.

What did the audit find?

1. State Nodal Officer controls: ECINET has a management area to create, manage and update each State Nodal Officer (SNO), a State’s designated user of the portal, with a built-in disable action on each SNO row.
2. Disable warning: The disable pop-up says that once an SNO is disabled, “the user will no longer be able to access the application”.
3. State-wise viewing switch: The code carries the message “View enumeration form details is not enabled for selected State”. Viewing enumeration forms can therefore be switched on or off for each State.
4. West Bengal-only feature: A separate feature can bar EROs and Assistant EROs (AEROs) only in West Bengal from reviewing enumeration forms and the notice-and-hearing dashboard.
5. Uncertain timing: It is not clear since when the feature has existed. The report’s author, a data scientist, could locate it from September 28.

Why does central control over access matter?

1. Dissent inside the Commission: Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had objected to the centralisation of ECINET and the electoral roll database.
2. Statutory safeguard argument: The Congress argues that EROs hold statutory authority over the roll. It says the ECINET system and the ECI’s IT division have overruled that safeguard.
3. Political allegation: The Congress alleged that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) set up ECINET to centralise control at the instance of the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister.
4. Capability, not proven use: The audit documents what the code allows. It does not record when, or against whom, the switches have been used.

Challenges

1. Code over statute: Access rules built into software can override duties set by law, without any notification or public scrutiny.
2. Discovery by outsiders: Such controls came to light only through an independent audit of the platform, not through ECI disclosure.
3. State-specific treatment: A control aimed at one State’s officers alone raises a question of equal treatment. Eg. EROs and AEROs in West Bengal.
4. Divided Commission: Open disagreement among Commission members over the platform weakens public trust in the ECI as one body.

Way Forward

1. Published access policy: The ECI should publish who can disable whose access on ECINET, and on what grounds.
2. Audit trail: Log every use of the enable and disable switches, with the record open to the ERO concerned.
3. Independent review: Commission an external governance and security audit of ECINET and place its findings in public.
4. Full Commission approval: Bring any platform change that limits a statutory officer’s powers before all three members of the Commission.

Conclusion

ECINET has become the place where an ERO’s legal authority is either exercised or switched off, and the audit shows the switch sits at the centre. Whether the ECI explains the State-specific control and opens the platform’s access rules to scrutiny will decide whether its own members’ objections are answered.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2026, GS2, 10 marks] Is the right to vote a fundamental right? Discuss the position of the Election Commission of India while undertaking the revision of electoral rolls. Can it also examine the question of citizenship of voters?”