New Delhi. The Supreme Court has provided relief to the Central Government by dismissing the petitions seeking a stay on the appointment of two new Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar. The court said that we cannot ban the appointment of the Election Commissioner, doing so before the Lok Sabha elections can create a situation of chaos. However, the court has sought a response from the government within 6 weeks on the petitions challenging the Act.
The central government had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court a day earlier on March 20. The government had said that the constitutional institution will become independent only when a judicial member is included in the selection committee, this argument is wrong. Election Commission is an independent institution. The bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna, Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Augustine George Masih has sought a response from the Central Government within 6 weeks on the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the law. The bench asked the petitioners to file a separate application pointing out the fact that a meeting was already held for the selection of election commissioners. The court has asked the central government to file a reply on this.
Congress leader Jaya Thakur and NGO Asian Democratic Reforms have demanded a ban on the appointment process of election commissioners. It is noteworthy that after the retirement of Anoop Chandra Pandey on February 14 and the sudden resignation of Arun Goyal, two vacancies had arisen in the Election Commission. The NGO has challenged the validity and sought to stay the operation of Section 7 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which excludes the CJI from the panel that selects the CEC and the EC.