ECINET’s new toggle lets Election Commission switch off state officials’ access to voter forms

ECINET, the Election Commission of India’s digital portal, lets the central authority turn off State Nodal Officers’ (SNOs) ability to view enumeration form details state by state, effectively creating a centrally‑controlled system. The feature appears in a dedicated SNO management area where each officer can be disabled with a single click; the pop‑up warns that a disabled SNO will no longer access the application. When the toggle is off for a state, officials see the message “View enumeration form details is not enabled for selected State.” The toggle was spotted by data scientist Saurav Rajput, an IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta alumnus, in a civic‑tech audit by Charchagram. Rajput could locate the code for the feature on September 28, several months after ECINET’s launch in January 2026. He noted that front‑end JavaScript files, publicly accessible before login, reveal labels and API paths meant only for officials, including the disable button. Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi have objected to this centralisation, saying it undermines the statutory authority of Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) over the electoral roll. The audit also found a separate restriction that blocks EROs and Assistant EROs in West Bengal from reviewing enumeration forms and the notice‑and‑hearing dashboard. The Congress party, through spokesperson Jairam Ramesh, accused the Election Commission’s IT head Gyanesh Kumar of implementing ECINET on instructions from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to centralise election‑process controls, alleging a breach of legal safeguards.

Context

ECINET consolidates many election‑related apps under one login, aiming for efficiency but raising concerns about over‑centralisation of power and transparency in the electoral process.