NEW DELHI: India’s top court on Thursday ordered the formation of a bipartisan panel comprising the prime minister and the chief justice to select the country’s election commissioners, making it possible for the government to effectively pick candidates. The custom will end.
The Election Commission of India is an independent constitutional authority, but opposition parties have accused it of bowing to the ruling party’s demands, a charge it has denied.
The new panel will also include the leader of the opposition in the lower house of parliament or the opposition party with the largest number of members in the house.
Justice KM Joseph, while delivering the order of a constitution bench, said, “This routine will continue until Parliament enacts a law, which has rejected several petitions demanding an independent committee to appoint election commissioners.” Heard the
“The Election Commission of India has the difficult and unenviable task of avoiding all subjugation and interference by the executive.”
Currently, the president of the country, usually acting on the advice of the government, appoints the chief election commissioner and two commissioners for six-year terms. Usually they are ex-bureaucrats.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioners, described the decision as historic.
“They have said that the independence of the Election Commission is absolutely essential to democracy, and to ensure that independence, you can’t have a system where the government is the election commissioner alone,” he told reporters outside the court. Appoint.”
Former Chief Election Commissioner of India SY Qureshi said that our long-standing demands are being fulfilled.
“Finally the Supreme Court has got it,” he said in a post on Twitter, referring to the Supreme Court. “The demand has been pending for two decades. Good for the perception of EC’s impartiality.”
