New ECs take charge as SC refuses to stay their appointments
Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu assume charge as Election Commissioners on Friday.
Former bureaucrats Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu assumed charge as Election Commissioners on Friday, a day after their selection by a highpowered panel chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Supreme Court refused to intervene immediately on a petition urging a stay on their appointments, on the grounds that the hurry and lack of transparency shown by the government has sent a wrong message that the two retired IAS officers are “favourable” to the regime in power.
This is the first time that Election Commissioners have been appointed in accordance with the new Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, which was brought in by the government last December, and which replaces the Chief Justice of India with a Cabinet Minister in the selection panel chaired by the
Prime Minister.
Appearing before a threejudge Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, the petitioners — including Association for Democratic Reforms and Congress leader Jaya Thakur and others, represented by senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Vikas Singh, and advocate Prashant Bhushan — said the enactment of the new law, which gives the Union government a dominant role in the selection and appointment of Election Commissioners, had worked to its advantage.
However, the Bench relied on a technical point that legislative enactments are not “normally” stayed. The court adjourned the case to March 22.
Listing out the series of circumstances which raised suspicions about the process, advocate Prashant Bhushan said that the government had deliberately advanced the meeting of the highprofile selection committee by a day to time the appointments ahead of the court hearing on March 15.