Union Law Minister Arjun Meghwal, in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, introduced a bill to regulate the selection process, conditions of service and tenure of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners.
The Bill also addresses the protocol for handling the affairs of the Election Commission.
It proposes that the President will appoint Election Commissioners based on the recommendations of a panel consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a Union cabinet minister nominated by the Prime Minister, which will be headed by the Prime Minister. If passed, the bill would overrule the Supreme Court’s March 2023 ruling that the president should select Election Commissioners based on the advice of a panel, which includes the prime minister, the leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India. However, the apex court’s judgment specified that the process would remain valid till the law is passed by the Parliament. The Opposition parties have reacted strongly to the proposed bill. Congress leader KC Venugopal criticised the bill, alleging that it aimed to subordinate the Election Commission to the prime minister. In a tweet, he said, “There is an attempt to make the Election Commission a complete puppet in the hands of the Prime Minister.” Sharing a similar view, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet that the bill indicates the ability of the Prime Minister to modify Supreme Court decisions with which he disagrees, by introducing a bill in the Parliament.
In response, BJP leader Amit Malviya said that the government has the right to introduce the bill, stressing that the Supreme Court’s judgment suggested an interim process for the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner in the absence of a formal legal framework. He tweeted, “Supreme Court’s judgment suggests a temporary method for appointment of CEC in the absence of a statutory mechanism. It is within the power of the government to bring a bill for this.”
What did the SC say on appointment process of CEC six months ago?
On March 3, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner would, henceforth, be selected by a panel consisting of Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) and the Chief Justice of India (CJI). Parliament passes laws on appointments. The decision, which equates the process of selection of the EC and CEC to that of the head of the Central Bureau of Investigation, came in the backdrop of persistent complaints from the Opposition parties, which have accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of favouritism. The Supreme Court had said, in the absence of the LOP, the leader of the largest Opposition party in Parliament would be included in the collegium for appointment of the CEC and EC. Even that day, the Opposition parties criticised the government and welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision, with most of them saying it would help clarify the selection process and “protect democracy”, although Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was clear that it was only “better than nothing”. In its 378-page judgement, the court had also held that the right to vote is not just a statutory or legal right, but a constitutional right, which, like every other right, is subject to valid restrictions imposed under various laws.
