Supreme Court Refuses To Stay Appointment Of Election Commissioners As Per New Act Dropping CJI From Selection Panel

The Supreme Court on Thursday (21 March) refused to stay the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act 2023 which dropped the Chief Justice of India (CJI) from the selection committee.

This comes a day after the Centre defended the Act through an affidavit saying that keeping the judiciary out of the selection process ensured the independence of the Election Commission.

A plea was filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Congress leader Jaya Thakur and others challenging the Act and heard by a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta.

On behalf of the petitioners, Prashant Bhushan argued that the selection panel is dominated by the executive. As per the Act, the panel has Prime Minister, a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the PM and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

Retired IAS officers Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu were appointed as the new Election Commissioners (ECs) last week by this panel. They were selected from 200 candidates and the final shortlisting had six names.

Justice Khanna noted, "Now they have been appointed, elections are on the corner... it is a question of balance of convenience. There are no allegations against the persons appointed."