EC selections spark tussle over executive, judicial boundaries

The Union government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the participation of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) in picking the election commissioners (ECS) cannot be the only guarantee of fairness in the selection process, even as the court asked the Centre to produce in 24 hours the file related to the appointment of former bureaucrat Arun Goel as an EC so as to demonstrate how ECS are chosen.

The day-long argument before a five-judge Constitution bench on Wednesday witnessed the first retort from the Centre, which has been in the firing line for not framing either a law or putting in place regulations laying down the eligibility criteria and selection mechanism for the chief election commissioner (CEC) and ECS – highlighting how the issue has become a tussle on the roles and boundaries of the judiciary and the executive.

While the Constitution bench, headed by justice KM Joseph, has repeatedly illustrated since Thursday last week as to how the CJI’S presence can usher in impartiality to a selection process at a time when all governments want “Yes men” in the Election Commission of India (ECI), the government called it a “fallacious” and “constitutionally impermissible” suggestion that