NEW DELHI: A day after Gyanesh Kumar was appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner, Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would endeavour to conduct the final hearing on a bunch of petitions challenging the validity of a Parliament-enacted law that altered the composition of the SC-devised panel for the selection of the CEC and ECs. The law included a Cabinet minister in the panel, excluding the Chief Justice of India.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan requested a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N K Singh to take up the hearing on the petitions, which are almost at the fag end of the list of cases scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, to be taken on priority and for issuance of instructions to that effect to the SC officials concerned. The bench declined to issue any direction but said it would hear the matters.
A little later, solicitor general Tushar Mehta sought adjournment of a petition on alleged encounter killings in Assam, a case in which the petitioner is represented by Bhushan, which the bench agreed to.
Bhushan said the Assam encounter case can be adjourned but the matter relating to the EC selection process cannot wait as it is very important for holding free and fair elections.
SC had refused to stay law on CEC appointment
A five-judge SC bench on March 2, 2023 in the Anoop Baranwal case had noticed a vacuum in parliamentary legislation on the process for selection of CEC and ECs and directed that a panel comprising the Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition and the Chief Justice of India would advise the President on appointments to the Election Commission of India. The bench said this court-crafted panel will continue to operate till Parliament enacts a law in this regard.
In Dec 2023, both Houses of Parliament passed the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Officer and Terms of Office) Bill, which became a law on getting the President’s assent on Dec 29, 2023. The law replaced Chief Justice of India with a Union Cabinet minister (to be nominated by the PM) in the committee.
Many petitions were immediately filed before Supreme Court alleging that the law violated the spirit of the SC judgment, which was to maintain the independence of ECI. On Jan 12, 2024, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna (now CJI) and Dipankar Datta refused to stay the operation of the legislation.The CJI has recused from hearing PILs on the ground that these are seeking CJI’s inclusion in the selection panel.