New Delhi, 17 February (IANS). Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar is retiring on 18 February. A three -member selection committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting on Monday to select the new CEC.
The selection committee meeting will include PM Modi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and a Union Minister nominated by the Prime Minister. According to sources, Law Minister Arjun Meghwal will also attend this meeting.
This will be the first appointment of the CEC under the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioner Act, 2023, which came into force in December 2023. As part of this provision, SS Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar were appointed as Election Commissioners in March 2024.
Both commissioners were appointed to fill the vacancies after Arun Goyal’s resignation and Anoop Chandra Pandey’s retirement.
Before the introduction of new statutory provisions for the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners, the most senior of the two remaining election commissioners were usually promoted to the top post after consulting the outgoing Chief Election Commissioner. However, under the revised selection process, now appointments are made on the basis of majority or consensus within the selection panel.
Many PILs regarding the appointment process, especially in relation to not inclusion of the Chief Justice of India in the panel (as previously the rule), are pending in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has set a hearing on these petitions on 19 February.
It will be interesting to see whether the three -member selection committee chooses the new Chief Election Commissioner or decides to appoint any of the current Election Commissioners to this post.
-IANS
FZ/