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The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that it will hear on February 4 a batch of petitions challenging the validity of the law relating to the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners, which dropped Chief Justice of India from selection panel for Election Commissioners.
The pleas were mentioned for early hearing before a bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioner, said removing the CJI from the selection panel, the Executive has acquired control over the appointment of ECs, which is a threat to electoral democracy. To this, the apex court replied that it understands the importance of the matter, but important matters also require a good amount of time for hearing. The bench asked the counsels to remind the court about the case on February 3 to be taken up on the following day. In 2024, the apex court had declined to put on hold the two Election Commissioners' appointment under the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023. It had dismissed all the applications seeking stay on the appointment of two Election Commissioners saying elections are round the corner and stay on the appointment would result in "chaos and uncertainty". The pleas were filed in the apex court seeking a stay on the Act by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Jaya Thakur (General Secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee), Sanjay Narayanrao Meshram, Dharmendra Singh Kushwaha, advocate Gopal Singh. At that time the apex court had refused to stay the operation of the Election Commissioner Act, 2023 and issued notice to the Centre and sought a response in April. The pleas challenged the Election Commissioners' law that has dropped Chief Justice of India from the selection panel for appointing CEC and other Election Commissioners (ECs). The petitions stated that the provisions of the enactment, are violative of the principle of free and fair elections since it does not provide an "independent mechanism" for appointment of the members of Election Commission of India (ECI). The petitions said the Act excludes the Chief Justice of India from the process of appointment of the members of ECI and it's in violation of the March 2, 2023 verdict of the top court which had ordered that the appointment of members of the ECI be done on the advice of a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the CJI and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha till a law is made by the Parliament. By excluding the CJI from the process, the judgement of the Supreme Court stands diluted as the Prime Minister and his nominee will always be "the deciding factor" in the appointments, said the petitions. The petitions in particular challenged Sections 7 and 8 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023. The provisions lay down the procedure for the appointment of ECI members. They sought direction to the Centre to include the Chief Justice of India in the selection committee for the appointment of the CEC and ECs which currently comprises of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister. The Act replaced the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991. (ANI)
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