oppn parties Supreme Court: Making The Election Commission Truly Independent

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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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Supreme Court: Making The Election Commission Truly Independent

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2023-03-03 08:02:55

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that Election Commissioner (EC) and the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) will henceforth be selected by a panel comprising of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the leader of the opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha till the Parliament enacts a law on the subject. Ruing the fact that several Central governments in the past 75 years have failed to enact such a law, despite the Constitution asking them to do so, as it will hamper their pursuit of power, the five-judge constitution bench said that exclusive control of the executive in such selection cannot be allowed to continue.

The bench said that "ECs, including the CEC, blessed with nearly infinite powers, must be chosen not by the executive exclusively and particularly without any objective yardstick". It said that "weak-kneed persons" or persons who are obligated or feel indebted to those who appoint them cannot be entrusted with the job as it is the "very foundation of democracy". There was stiff opposition from the Centre which said that the judiciary was stepping in executive domain but the bench was of the view that it has to step in as there is legislative vacuum in the matter. The court also accorded a huge degree of independence to the Election Commission by ruling that, among other things, it can now draw funds directly from the Consolidated Fund of India instead of waiting for approvals from the finance and other ministries.

There is no doubt that the selection of such important functionaries as the ECs and the CEC must follow some defined yardstick and must not be left to the whims and fancies of the party in power at the Centre. The practice now is to appoint retired bureaucrats who were close to the ruling dispensation to have control over them while maintaining a facade of propriety. But one feels that with regional parties becoming important in recent times, the Supreme Court could have, apart from the leader of the opposition in Parliament, included the leaders (in Parliament) of the next two big parties in the panel to make it truly representative. 

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