Defending the recent appointment of two new election commissioners (ECs) by a panel that excluded the Chief Justice of India, the Centre on Wednesday said that the independence of the poll body does not arise from the presence of a member of the judiciary in the selection committee.
The remark came in an affidavit filed by the Union Law Ministry in the Supreme Court against a batch of pleas, one of which claimed that the two election commissioners were hastily appointed on March 14 to “pre-empt” the orders of the top court the next day, when the matters challenging the 2023 law were listed for hearing on interim relief.
Retired IAS officers Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu were appointed as the two ECs last week under the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Terms of Office) Act, 2023.
The Union Law Ministry rejected the petitioners’ claim that the two election commissioners were hastily appointed on March 14 to “pre-empt” the orders of the top court the next day, when the matters challenging the 2023 law were listed for hearing on interim relief.
“It is submitted that the case of the petitioners is premised on one fundamental fallacy that the independence can only be maintained in any authority when the selection committee is of a particular formulation. It must be noted that the independence of the Election commission, or any other organisation or authority, does not arise from and is not attributable to the presence of a judicial member in the selection committee,” the affidavit said.
It further said that high constitutional functionaries are presumed to act fairly, and that their competence and eligibility cannot be questioned. It added that the petitioners, which included Congress leader Jaya Thakur and the Association for Democratic Reforms, were trying to create a “political controversy”.
Refuting the petitioners’ claim that no list of probable appointees was shared with the Opposition, the Centre submitted that the names of short-listed persons were made available to Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on March 13, after the search committee had finalised six names for recommendation.
