The Union Government on Tuesday declared to the Supreme Court that it would not remove Election Commissioner Mr Navin Chawla, as it would not set a right precedent in a democratic set-up.

Appearing before a bench of Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice V S Sirpurkar, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Mr Gopal Subramaniam said, “The Union of India contests the stand taken by the CEC in his affidavit filed before the court and reiterates that it is the executive government alone which is empowered to initiate proceedings against the Election Commissioner.”

The bench asked the government to clarify the stand of Chief Election Commissioner Mr N Gopalawami because he had the authority to initiate action against an Election Commissioner on the basis of a petition submitted to him.

The BJP and the Samajwadi Party withdrew their petitions after the court took cognisance of the Chief Election Commissioner’s affidavit. In its order, the Court said, “In view of the additional affidavit of CEC filed on August 6,  any body could approach the Commission seeking action against any election commissioner, the petitions are dismissed as withdrawn.”

The Court observed that it could not stop any body from filing any other petition after the dismissal of these petitions.