Supreme Court passes order declining stay of Election Commissioners' Act

The Supreme Court refused to stay the 2023 Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act and asked the Centre to respond within six weeks to a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the law, the Bar and Bench reported.

A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta heard writ petitions filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur, the Association for Democratic Reforms and other petitioners who questioned the validity of the amendments made to the Act, in particular the exclusion of the chief justice of India from the selection committee tasked with appointments to the Election Commission.

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Senior advocate Vikas Singh, representing one of the petitioners, highlighted the precedent set by the Supreme Court’s 2023 judgement in Anoop Baranwal Versus Union of India, according to which the appointments were to be made by the president of India on the advice of a panel comprising the prime minister, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the chief justice of India, reported Live Law.

The selection committee had been formed to shield the Election Commission from executive influence. Before this judgement, appointments to the commission were made at the sole discretion of the Centre.