Centre’s Bill Drops Chief Justice From Poll Officers’ Selection Process
In a move likely to trigger a fresh face-off between the government and the judiciary, the Centre is set to push legislation that will exclude the Chief Justice of India from the process to appoint the country’s top election officers.
The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Services and Term of Office) Bill, 2023, to come up in Rajya Sabha today, proposes that top Election Commission officers shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of a panel comprising the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister.
The Bill appears to dilute the Supreme Court’s March 2023 judgment in which a Constitution bench said Chief Election Commissioners and Election Commissioners must be appointed on the advice of a panel comprising the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India.
The judgment said this arrangement would continue until parliament came out with a law.
The Bill states that the search committee – which will identify five names to be considered by the PM-led panel – will comprise the Cabinet Secretary and two other secretaries of the Centre. The Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners, it states, should hold or have held a post equivalent to the rank of a secretary in the Government of India.
Interestingly, the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, also brought after a similar Supreme Court ruling in 2014, had retained the Chief Justice of India in the selection committee to appoint a CBI Director.
The fresh Bill sets up another confrontation between the Supreme Court and the Centre.
From judges’ appointments to controversial laws such as Delhi services Act, the Centre and the Supreme Court have been locked in a tussle over several issues.
The government and the Supreme Court have also differed in their positions on issues such as the basic structure doctrine; simply put, it means the Constitution has a basic structure that cannot be changed by parliament.
