Thu 02 March 2023:
India’s Supreme Court has ordered that the country’s election commissioners be chosen by a bipartisan panel that includes the prime minister and chief justice, ending a practice in which the government in effect chose them.
The Election Commission of India is a constitutionally independent body, but opposition parties frequently accuse it of giving in to demands from the ruling party, a claim the Election Commission has refuted.
The head of the opposition in the lower house of parliament or the opposition party with the most representatives will also be a part of the new panel.
“This norm will continue to hold good till a law is made by parliament,” said Justice K M Joseph on Thursday.
He was delivering the order of a constitution bench that heard several petitions calling for an independent committee to appoint election commissioners.
“The election commission of India is to perform the arduous and unenviable task of remaining aloof from all forms of subjugation by and interference from the executive,” he said.
Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer representing the petitioners, termed the judgement “historic”.
“They have said the independence of the election commission is absolutely essential for democracy, and for that independence to be assured, you cannot have a system where the government alone appoints the election commissioners,” he told reporters outside the court.
India’s former chief election commissioner, S Y Quraishi, said “our long pending demands are being met”.
“At last SC [Supreme Court] has clinched it,” he said in a post on Twitter. “The demand has been pending for two decades. Good for the perception of neutrality of the Election Commission.”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
