SC Refuses To Stay Appointments Of New ECs, Next Hearing On Pleas Challenging 2023 Law On March 21

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the appointments of new election commissioners (ECs) under Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023.

The 2023 law replaced Chief Justice of India (CJI) with a Union Minister, giving the Centre a dominant role in the appointment of CEC and ECs.

While refusing to stay the appointments of Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Sandhu as ECs, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih told the petitioners, who pointed out that a meeting for the selection of ECs was pre-poned, to file a separate application pointing out the fact. “Normally and generally, we do not stay a law by way of an interim order.”

The apex court posted the hearing on the batch of pleas to March 21.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing in the court on behalf of petitioner Jaya Thakur, argued that there was a clear-cut transgression in the 2023 law.

Former bureaucrats Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Sandhu were appointed as ECs by a three-member panel chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. The posts had fallen vacant after the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey on February 14 and the sudden resignation of Arun Goel.