Achi news desk-
The Supreme Court will review the validity of the 2023 Act, important posts for discussion on August 5
Guwahati: The Supreme Court on March 21 rejected the applications seeking a stay on two election commissions and said that with the elections around the corner, the stay on their appointment will lead to “chaos and uncertainty”.
However, a bench of Justices Sanjeev Khanna and Dipankar Datta questioned the Centre’s hasty appointment of the two officials.
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Justice Sanjeev Khanna was quoted as saying: “At this stage we cannot stay with the legislation and it will only lead to chaos and uncertainty."
The Supreme Court in the center’s investigation into the speed with which the search committee determined the candidates and the speed with which two election commissioners were selected by the selection committee said, “It is not a matter of questioning the certificates of the selected election commissioners, but of the procedure in which the selection was made."
The Supreme Court also refused to grant any interim stay on the operation of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Terms of Service and Terms of Office), 2023.
She said she would look into the main petitions challenging the validity of the 2023 Act and asked the Center to submit its response within six weeks and posted the matter for hearing on August 5.
"At this stage we cannot delay the legislation or suspend its operation. This will lead to chaos and uncertainty and we cannot do that (remain) by way of an interim order. There are no complaints against the new election commission," said the bench to the petitioners who challenged the new law.
The petitioners also requested a delay in the appointment of new election commissioners.
"We reject the requests to delay the appointment," said the bench.
Observing that it cannot be denied that the election commissioners should be independent and fair, the bench said that polls have been conducted since independence and the country had very good election commissioners in the past.
He noted that the election commissioners were previously appointed by the executive authority and are now appointed by law.
The Supreme Court said the 2023 judgment of its Constitution Bench nowhere said that there must be a member from the judiciary in the selection panel for appointing election commissioners under the new law.
The 2023 ruling, which was proposed by a selection panel that would include the prime minister, the leader of the opposition and the chief justice of India, was said to be for a period until Parliament enacted a law.
The ruling was intended to push the parliament to enact a law as it was a "pump" And it was not said which law should be enacted, the bench said.
During the hearing, the bench questioned the center about the procedure followed to appoint two new election commissioners.
According to him, the selection committee should have been given more time to implement its opinion regarding the appointment of the election commissioners.
"The search committee for the appointment of election commissioners should have been given a considerable amount of time to understand the background of the candidates," The bench floated.
Attorney General Tushar Mehta, who appeared on behalf of the Center, told the hearing that the process began in February, immediately after the law came into force. The selection procedure took place according to the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Law, 2023.
Retired IAS officers Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu were recently appointed to the Election Commission.
The appointments came ahead of the Lok Sabha polls starting April 19.
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According to the new law, the selection panel has the Prime Minister as its chairman, and the Leader of the Opposition and the Union Minister appointed by the Prime Minister are the other two members.
A five-judge Constitution Bench ruled in March 2023 that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs) will be appointed on the advice of a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India.
