New Delhi: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court by Congress leader Jaya Thakur to restrain the central government from appointing new Election Commissioners (EC) under the recently enacted Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment Conditions of Service and Terms of Office) Act, 2023.
Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh has filed the petition in the aftermath of the abrupt resignation of Arun Goel as EC, which reduced the three-member poll panel to just one member – Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar – ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections.
Thakur’s plea seeks a directive from the apex court urging the union government to follow the guidelines outlined in a prior Supreme Court judgment. These guidelines specify that ECs should be appointed by a panel consisting of the Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, and the Leader of the Opposition. “This is our attempt to make sure that some parameters will be set up for this (appointment of election commissioners),” Thakur told news agency PTI.
Petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Act which dropped the Chief Justice of India from the selection panel for ECs, are already pending in the Supreme Court.
According to reports, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to chair a high-powered committee meeting on March 15 to finalise the names of new election commissioners.
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