NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear another petition challenging the validity of Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act as per which appointments to the poll panel are to be decided by a committee comprising PM, a Union cabinet minister and the leader of opposition, but refused to stay operation of the law.
A bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna issued notice to Centre on a petition filed by Association for Democratic Reforms and tagged it with other petitions challenging the law and listed the matter for April.
Earlier, SC had issued notice on a petition filed by Congress activist Jaya Thakur who claimed that Sections 7 and 8 were violative of the principle of free and fair elections as they did not provide an “independent mechanism” for appointment of members of Election Commission. It contended that the law was enacted to override SC’s March 2022 verdict which had entrusted the task to a panel of PM, LoP and CJI, taking away Centre’s power to unilaterally appoint them which had been in practice since independence.
In a major decision to insulate EC from govt’s interference, a five-judge constitution bench had on March 2 in an unanimous verdict disapproved the system of Centre appointing members of the poll panel and had ruled that selection of CEC and ECs was be done by a three-member committee of the PM, LoP and CJI.
A bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna issued notice to Centre on a petition filed by Association for Democratic Reforms and tagged it with other petitions challenging the law and listed the matter for April.
Earlier, SC had issued notice on a petition filed by Congress activist Jaya Thakur who claimed that Sections 7 and 8 were violative of the principle of free and fair elections as they did not provide an “independent mechanism” for appointment of members of Election Commission. It contended that the law was enacted to override SC’s March 2022 verdict which had entrusted the task to a panel of PM, LoP and CJI, taking away Centre’s power to unilaterally appoint them which had been in practice since independence.
In a major decision to insulate EC from govt’s interference, a five-judge constitution bench had on March 2 in an unanimous verdict disapproved the system of Centre appointing members of the poll panel and had ruled that selection of CEC and ECs was be done by a three-member committee of the PM, LoP and CJI.
