INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday criticised the Narendra Modi government for introducing a bill seeking to replace the chief justice of
India (CJI) with a cabinet minister in the committee for the appointment of chief election commissioners (CECs) and election commissioners
(ECs).Congress MP and general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh, in a post on X, quoted a letter written by the then BJP
parliamentary party chairperson L K Advani to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the appointments to constitutional bodies such as
bodies such the Election Commission should be done on a bipartisan basis in order to remove any impression of bias or lack of transparency
This is an excerpt from the second para of a letter from Advani to then PM Dr Manmohan Singh on 2nd June, 2012
(https://bjp.org/images/pdf_2011/letter_advaniji_june_03_12e.pdf) To select the CEC and the Election Commissioners, the committee he
brought by the Modi government is not only against what Advani proposed but also overturns a five-judge constitution bench judgment from
that in its current form, the CEC Bill will ensure executive interference with its 2:1 dominance of the committee
the Chief Election Commissioner, Shri S Y Qureshi, later this month
that only persons with competence, integrity and an impeccable record of service get appointed to these crucial bodies, whose functioning
appointed by the President, solely on the advice of the Prime Minister, does not evoke confidence among the people
Keeping these important decisions as the exclusive preserve of the ruling party renders the selection process vulnerable to manipulation and
Indeed, the credibility of this system was severely dented when a dubious appointment to the crucial office of CEC was made a few years ago
The time has, therefore, come to reform the selection process for the EC and other constitutional bodies, as has indeed been done in the
Let the wholesome change come this time as a result of an initiative taken by the executive, he added.Advani mentioned that even the Second
Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC), which had been appointed by the Singh government, recommended in its report in 2009 that the CEC
and other members of the Election Commission be appointed by a collegium
Significantly, this recommendation appeared in ARC's report on Ethics in Governance, he said.He suggested that the new member to the
Election Commission be appointed by a broad-based collegium comprising the prime minister as the chairman and CJI, law and justice minister,
leader of opposition (Lok Sabha) and leader of opposition (Rajya Sabha) as its members
He also suggested amending Article 324 of the Constitution which deals with the Election Commission of India
The phrasing of Article 324 (2) shows that this would not need any Constitutional Amendment and can be done by an ordinary enactment.The
The opposition created an uproar to oppose the contentious bill.Law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal moved the Chief Election Commissioner and
other Election Commissioners (Appointment Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023 in the Rajya Sabha in the post-lunch
session.As per the bill, future CECs and ECs will be selected by a three-member committee headed by the prime minister and comprising the
leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and a cabinet minister.Opposition parties, including the Congress and the AAP, raised strong
objections to the bill accusing the government of diluting a Supreme Court Constitution bench order.The bill comes months after the Supreme
Court in March ruled that the selection panel should comprise the prime minister, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and CJI, till a
law is framed by Parliament on the appointment of the CEC and ECs.
