A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court to restrain the Center from appointing Election Commissioners. The petition filed in the Supreme Court has demanded that the central government be restrained from making appointments to vacant posts in the Election Commission as per the current law. The present law excludes the Chief Justice of India from the process of appointing the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other Election Commissioners (EC). It is worth noting that on March 9, Election Commissioner Arun Goyal resigned from his post.
The application demanded that the appointment of Election Commission members be directed as per the March 2023 constitution bench judgment of the apex court. It states that the appointment of the top officials of the Election Commission will be made by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Lok Sabha and a panel of the Chief Justice of India.
Congress leader Jaya Thakur has filed a PIL challenging the validity of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Status of Service and Tenure of Office) Act, 2023.
Several PILs have been filed before the Supreme Court against the gazette notification issued by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice. The notification states that the appointment of the CEC and EC will be made by the President of India on the recommendation of a selection committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister.
Notably, a bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna had issued a notice to the central government and others in this case in January this year, but any order to stay the implementation of the laws recently enacted by Parliament. was not issued.
The bench said that, we cannot stop this type of law, Justice Dipankar Dutta was also included in this bench.
