Legislative Comment On “The Chief Election Commissioner And Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions Of Service And Term Of Office) Bill, 2023
Saloni Choudhary & Devesh Mahajan, Advocate at Bar Council of Delhi
ABSTRACT
Free and fair elections are the most essential aspect of a democratic nation. The election commission by the virtue of Article 324 has been entrusted with the responsibility of conducting free and fair elections and to superintendent, control and direct the elections being conducted in the centre or state level. Article 324 directly states that the Election Commissioner is appointed by the President but there is no formal process of appointment of Election Commissioner. Supreme Court recently in the case of Anoop Barnwal v. Union of India1 directed that the Chief Election Commissioner should be appointed by a three-member panel comprising of Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India until a law is passed by parliament. Centre however passed a Bill i.e., The CEC And Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023 which directly went against the findings of the judgment given by the apex court. The above-mentioned bill proposes a different procedure to appoint the Chief Election Commissioner and directs that it will be appointed by a committee comprising of the Leader of Opposition, the Prime Minister and the cabinet minister nominated by the Prime Minister. This paper also critically analyses the newly passed bill and looks upon various facets of the bill and compares it with the Election Commission Act 1991 in some of the aspects which this particular bill seeks to replace. Another aspect which the paper will touch upon is that how this bill does not follow the guidelines which were provided by the apex court in the Anoop Barnwal case.
Keywords: Elections, Democracy, Election Commissioners, ECI Bill, selection committee
Comments