2 Election Commissioners likely to be appointed by March 15, plea filed in SC

New Delhi: The retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey and the surprise resignation of Arun Goel have left the Election Commission of India (ECI) with just one member – Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar. The crucial vacancies of election commissioners (ECs) are likely to be filled up by March 15.

A search committee under Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and comprising the Home Secretary and Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Secretary will prepare two separate panels of five names each for the two posts.

A selection committee, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and comprising a Union minister and Leader of Congress party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, will then choose two candidates for appointment as election commissioners. President Droupadi Murmu will make the formal appointments.

Plea Filed in Supreme Court

Meanwhile, a plea has been filed in the Supreme Court by Congress leader Jaya Thakur to restrain the Central government from appointing new Election Commissioners under the recently enacted Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment Conditions of Service and Terms of Office) Act-2023. Thakur’s plea seeks a directive from the apex court urging the union government to follow the guidelines outlined in a prior Supreme Court judgment. These guidelines specify that ECs should be appointed by a panel consisting of the Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, and the Leader of the Opposition.

This is our attempt to make sure that some parameters will be set up for this (appointment of election commissioners).

Jaya Thakur, Congress leader

Petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Act which dropped the Chief Justice of India from the selection panel for ECs, are already pending in the Supreme Court.