SC SEEKS DETAILS OF RECENT APPOINTMENT OF TOP POLL BODY OFFICIAL

The Supreme Court asked the Centre on Wednesday to produce before it the file related to the appointment of election commissioner Arun Goel appointed on November 19.

A five-judge Constitution bench said it wants to know whether there was any “hanky panky” in Goel’s appointment as election commissioner as he was only recently given voluntary retirement from service. The bench rejected the objections of Attorney General (AG) R Venkataramani on the court willing to see the file related to Goel’s appointment while the hearing is on. Venkataramani told the bench that it is dealing with the larger issue of appointment of ECs and the chief election commissioner and it cannot look at an individual case flagged by advocate Prashant Bhushan.

The bench said it started hearing pleas seeking a collegiumlike system for the appointment of ECs and the CEC last week and Goel was appointed as an EC subsequently on November 19. Therefore, it wants to see what prompted the step. “We want to see what is the mechanism. We will not treat it as an adversarial... but we want to know as you claim that everything is hunky dory,” it told the AG.