Amid the ongoing protests over the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the clamour for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday said that due process would be followed once a motion to impeach the CEC was moved.The Opposition INDIA bloc and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have been seeking the rollback of the SIR and the resignation of the CEC. “We will follow the process when the motion is moved. The process has been laid down for the CEC too, just as it has been for the judges. It will be followed if the Opposition moves a motion,” Birla said while addressing a press conference in Parliament ahead of the BRICS Parliamentary meet.It is pertinent to note that the CEC of India can only be removed by two methods, either through a Parliamentary impeachment process identical to that for a Supreme Court judge, or if he resigns voluntarily by submitting a resignation letter to the President. The INDIA bloc has called for a mega rally on November 1 at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi to push for its demands regarding the SIR.Birla further said that he would “expedite” the decision on the lawmakers of the 20 rebel TMC MPs who have joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) once he receives representations from both sides. Last month, on September 23, the SC had had noted that it hoped the Lok Sabha Speaker to take an “expeditious” decision on the plea seeking disqualification of the rebel lawmakers. “We will hear from both sides. When the responses come from the members, we will expedite the process,” the Speaker said.Birla also expressed hope that the 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum will adopt a joint declaration by consensus, drawing a parallel with the declaration issued at the BRICS summit in Brazil despite differences among member countries. The two-day forum will be held at Samvidhan Sadan on October 26 and 27.EC using staff crunch excuse to reject RTI requests: Ex-MPTMC leader and ex-MP Saket Gokhale accused the Election Commission of India of citing officials’ workload as an excuse to reject RTI requests and withhold potentially inconvenient information. He said that accepting election-related work as a valid reason for withholding information would allow the ECI to evade its RTI obligations indefinitely.