<span style="color: #222222;">Union Ministry of Law and Justice has clarifed that Legislative Department organises meetings with officers of the Election Commission and other relevant government departments in matters related to electoral reforms. In a statement, the Ministry said, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) was not invited in the virtual meeting held on 16th of last month on Common Electoral Roll and no physical meeting was organized in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).  <br />'' <br />''The Ministry said, since Election Commission of India (ECI) has the necessary expertise and mandate regarding Electoral roll and in the light of the previous letters of CEC addressed to the Law Minister, Secretary, Legislative Department thought it appropriate to invite officials of Election Commission to this meeting.<br />''<br />''Accordingly, Under Secretary, Legislative Department sent a letter to the Secretary, ECI on 15th of last month to attend the meeting scheduled next day.<br />''<br />''The letter was addressed to Secretary and the final operative paragraph of the letter also requested Secretary, ECI  to attend the meeting.<br />''<br />''After receipt of the letter by the ECI, the CEC spoke to Secretary, Legislative Department expressing his displeasure over the expression in the middle part of the letter which gave an impression that it was expected of the CEC to attend the meeting. However, the Secretary, Legislative Department clarified that the letter was for Secretary or a representative of the CEC familiar with the subject to attend the meeting.<br />''<br />''The Ministry said, the meeting of 16th November was to finalise the Cabinet Note on some of the reforms which was held virtually. The subsequent interaction with the CEC and two Election Commissioners was an informal one and meant for ironing out two or three aspects for the final proposal.<br />''<br />''This virtual meeting was attended by the Officials of Government of India and ECI Vofficials. After the meeting of Officials, certain issues required further fine-tuning. These issues include the number of qualifying dates for updation of electoral roll, some aspects of Aadhaar linkage and requisition of premises.  <br />''<br />''The Ministry clarified that after the Official meeting, a separate informal interaction was held virtually with the CEC and the two Election Commissioners.<br />''<br />''The Ministry said, it is important to note that subsequent to these deliberations with the Election Commission, a proposal was drafted by the Legislative Department which was placed for consideration before the Union Cabinet that has approved proposal for introducing "The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 during the current session of the Parliament.</span><br />