Is The Judiciary Stepping In Executive Domain?
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-11-24 05:56:50
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The tug of
war in the Supreme Court, with the 5-judge bench making several pertinent
observations regarding the continued assault on the independence of the
Election Commission as, in its view, the appointment process of election
commissioners was not transparent and the government arguing that the
appointment was the exclusive preserve of the executive, basically stems from
the fact that political parties in India have never displayed the will to go
for much needed electoral reforms. Since the courts have had to step in to trigger
the introduction of such basic reforms as to ensure that criminal records of
all candidates, the list of their assets and educational qualifications were
published and those with convicted of a crime that carries a punishment of two
years' (or even less in some cases) of imprisonment were disqualified to
contest elections, it is clear that politicians by themselves would not like to
change the status quo.
It is in
this respect that the Supreme Court, hearing a bunch of pleas on the process of
appointing election commissioners, has sought to intervene and find out if the
government is acting against the Constitution in such appointments. The judges
have opined that successive governments have used the "silence of the Constitution" on this issue to abrogate exclusive power. Although the Election Commission, a
statutory body that is independent for all practical purposes, has been doing
exemplary work in conducting the world's largest elections and is largely seen
to be free of bias, the point which the bench has raised cannot be ignored. The
process of appointing election commissioners needs to be much more transparent that
it is now.
But for
that, judicial intervention in the form of the chief justice of India sitting
on the selection committee is not needed. As per separation of powers, even
though the Constitution is silent on this issue, the executive must have the
right of such appointments. The only need is to streamline the process through
consultations between all political parties and, if needed, the enactment of a
separate law. The government must not play favourites and it must be on paper
how the election commissioners will be selected. For, when it comes to the
crunch, if the election commissioners know they have been appointed as per law
as they were the most eligible, they will not be beholden to the powers-that-be
and could carry out their duties fearlessly and in a fair manner.
