Fake circular shared to claim Indian government has appointed two election commissioners

What is the claim?

Social media users are sharing a document they claim is an official Gazette from the Government of India, announcing the appointment of two new election commissioners to the Election Commission of India (ECI) following Arun Goel's recent resignation.

The document names “Dr. Rajesh Kumar Gupta, Retd. IAS,” and “Shri Priyansh Sharma, Retd. IAS” as the appointees, purportedly under the “provisions of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service, and Term of Office) Act, 2023, by the High-Powered Committee (HPC).” It asserts that these appointments, having received the President of India's assent, will become effective on March 13, 2024.

This document has appeared on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, with archived links to the posts accessible here and here.

Screenshot of the viral post. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, this notification is fake and not official. The Government of India has not announced these appointments.

Here are the facts

A Google search for any official statement regarding the appointments of Rajesh Kumar Gupta and Priyansh Sharma yielded no results. A closer examination of the viral notification revealed multiple discrepancies when compared with genuine Government of India Gazette notifications. Key issues include the absence of a Gazette number, an incorrect date format, and the lack of the double-lined header typically present in official documents. Notably, the date format in the viral document does not match that of official notifications.

Comparison of viral post and official Gazette and the discrepancies highlighted by red, blue, and green color elements. (Source: X/Gazette of India/Screenshot)

There is an extra notification number in the viral image (No. Ν.Ο. 3502(E)/24/25/MPA) which couldn’t be found on the government website. The font on the viral image is also different — while official Gazettes are typically in the Times New Roman font, the viral image is typed out in Calibri.

Comparison of viral post and official Gazette and the discrepancies highlighted by red and green color elements. (Source: X/Gazette of India/Screenshot)

Usually, the official one-page Gazettes are signed off by authorities, and the footer also mentions the signatory's details and when it was uploaded, which are both missing in the viral image. 

We can see a subtle gray background on the text in the viral Gazette, hinting that the text may have been copied from elsewhere. Moreover, unlike the original notifications, usually issued with a justified alignment to the text, the viral image has left-aligned text.

The PIB (Press Information Bureau) denied the claim and stated the notification was fake.

On March 14, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told news agency ANI that two former bureaucrats, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu from Punjab and Gyanesh Kumar from Kerala, have been elected to the Election Commission of India. Chowdhury serves on the central panel responsible for selecting new election commissioners. However, official confirmation from the government is still awaited.

Resignation of EC Arun Goyal before Lok Sabha elections

On March 9, 2024, Election Commissioner Arun Goyal resigned just before the expected announcement of the schedule for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. This departure occurred a month after Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey retired in February 2024. According to a report by The Hindu, a panel led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is anticipated to appoint two new Election Commissioners of India by March 15 to fill the vacancies. The President is expected to approve these appointments.

The verdict

The Government of India has not issued any such Gazette notification. The circulated notification is counterfeit and digitally fabricated. Consequently, we have marked this claim as false.

(Note: This article has been updated to include Congress leader Adhir Rajan Chowdhury's statement to the media on the appointments)