Haryana: Speaker's brother is Haryana state election commissioner
Former Indian revenue service (IRS) officer, Devinder Singh Kalyan was on Thursday appointed as the state election commissioner, Haryana, by the governor on the recommendation of the state government. Kalyan is the brother of BJP MLA from Gharaunda and Haryana vidhan sabha speaker, Harvinder Kalyan, who retired from the service on May 31. Devinder Singh Kalyan is the brother of assembly speaker Harvinder Kalyan, who is also BJP MLA from Gharaunda. (HT)
The state election commission (SEC) is vested with the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for and the conduct of elections to panchayats and municipal bodies under Articles 243 K and 243ZA of the Constitution.
Legal experts say that appointment of Kalyan, a blood relation of a ruling BJP politician, clearly amounted to conflict of interest. Former Haryana advocate general, Mohan Jain said that the appointment of the real brother of the Haryana assembly speaker as state election commissioner is against public interest.
'The newly-appointed state election commissioner will not be able to do justice to his job. Since the SEC is mandated under the Constitution to prepare electoral rolls and conduct elections of panchayats and municipal bodies in which all the political parties are involved, the appointment of a politically connected person as SEC will certainly raise questions of fairness and transparency in the conduct of polls. Fundamentally, Devender Kalyan is in a way connected with the ruling party,'' said Jain, a former additional solicitor general.
An IRS officer from the income tax stream, Devinder Kalyan had in April 2023 managed to get a posting in the Haryana government as principal secretary, excise and taxation, a cadre post of IAS officers. Following his deputation to the state government, Kalyan was first posted as advisor in state finance department in February 2023.
The state government had earlier recommended Kalyan's name for chairman of State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), Haryana to the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC). The central ministry however rejected his name stating Devinder Singh Kalyan does not meet the eligibility requirements for the Environment Impact Assessment (ElA) notification of 2006.
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