CEC selection panel

FIVE months after the Supreme Court ruled that the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and his/her deputies would be made by the President on the recommendation of a committee comprising the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India (CJI), the government has tabled a Bill in the Rajya Sabha that seeks to replace the CJI with a Cabinet minister on the selection panel. The Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023, has caused an uproar among Opposition parties, which have accused the government of ‘diluting and overturning’ the order of the apex court. The Centre has claimed that the Bill is in accordance with the SC order directing Parliament to frame a law in this regard. The court had stated that till a law was framed, the selection committee proposed by it would hold good.

With Assembly elections to be held in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana later this year and the Lok Sabha polls barely nine months away, the Bill is apparently an attempt by the government to retain control over the appointment of top officers of the poll panel. According to the legislation, two of the three committee members will be from the government, thus giving it an unfair edge.

Over the decades, the selection of CECs and Election Commissioners by successive Union governments has been largely marked by lack of transparency. In its March ruling, the apex court had stressed that the offices of the CEC and the Election Commissioners had to be insulated from the executive’s interference in order to allow the Election Commission (EC) to function independently as a constitutional body. The new Bill, which seeks to alter the composition of the selection panel, runs contrary to the letter and spirit of the court’s order. The new Bill needs an urgent review as it threatens to vitiate the process of making key EC appointments.