Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi leaves South Block after attending a meeting to select the next Chief Election Commissioner on February 17, 2025.
| Photo Credit: ANI
A three-member committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on Monday (February 17, 2025) to pick the new Chief Election Commissioner of India even as the Congress party asked the government to “adjourn” the meeting until after February 19 when the Supreme Court would hear the challenge to the new law under which the CEC would be appointed.
While the Prime Minister headed the committee, the other members were Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.
It was understood that the name of the new CEC had been finalised and the same sent to President Droupadi Murmu for approval.
Congress sources, however, said that Mr Gandhi left the meeting, being held at the Prime Minister’s official residence, after submitting his objections in writing.
Officially at a press conference after the meeting, the Congress party said the new law under which the committee was constituted created a “partisan” and “non-neutral” mechanism for the selection of Election Commissioners.
The party also asked the government to file an early hearing and early disposal application in the apex court in the matter.
“At the outset, we cannot ignore that this Committee is in clear and direct violation of the Supreme Court’s judgment of March 2, 2023, where a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Anoop Baranwal vs. Union of India declared that the CEC and the ECs should be appointed by a Committee, comprising of the PM, the LOP and the CJI,” Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the party’s national spokesperson and chairperson of its legal cell, said.
However, while maintaining that the Leader of Opposition participated in the meeting, Mr. Singhvi said: “What he said, what happened, what he discussed etc., is not for me or you to speculate upon. We can’t say anything. What happened you will come to know in the next 24-48 hours.”
Congress treasurer Ajay Maken, who was also present at the press conference, said, “We cannot say more. We have put our stand forward. What happened and all in a secret meeting, we cannot say; we respect secrecy.”
This will be the first time that a CEC is selected under the provisions of the new law — Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023. Before this, Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu had been selected under the new law.
Earlier, these appointments were made by the President based on recommendations of the government.
The law came into effect after the Supreme Court, in its ruling in March 2023, had mandated a selection panel be formed and said that it should comprise the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India. The court had said the order would hold good until a law was made by Parliament.
The Centre, however, replaced the CJI with a Union Minister in the panel when the law was passed, giving a dominant role to the Central government in the appointment process.
After current CEC Rajiv Kumar, Mr. Gyanesh Kumar is the senior-most election commissioner. His tenure is till January 26, 2029. The committee is also likely to select an Election Commissioner in case Mr. Gyanesh Kumar is elevated to the CEC position.
In a farewell address, Mr. Rajiv Kumar said it was high time that NRIs were empowered to vote from their locations and a consensus was needed for Remote Voting mechanisms to facilitate crores of migrant voters.
He also batted for biometric authentication at polling booths to efficiently tackle impersonation.
Published – February 17, 2025 09:23 pm IST