SC questions govt on method to pick CECS

A Constitution bench in the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Union government if it could explain the method followed, or yardsticks adopted, in picking the chief election commissioner (CEC) and the election commissioners (ECS), and termed it “disturbing” that India has not had a woman CEC in 75 years of its Independence, suggesting that gender diversity in the appointment in the Election Commission of India is as important as having competent and independent people to head the poll body.

With the government silent on the method, the bench remarked: “It looks like there is no mechanism and you follow your own procedure. Is it not

defeating the wishes of the framers of the Constitution when you say that there is no vacuum while the Constitution lays down that such appointments have to be subject to the provisions of

the law to be made by Parliament?”

The bench’s remarks are significant as they come amid criticism by the government of the