Congress, BJP push their views in Lok Sabha on CJI on panel to select CEC

New Delhi: Two senior leaders of the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress on Wednesday debated in the Lok Sabha whether the panel to select the chief election commissioner and election commissioners has the Chief Justice of India as a member.

Participating in the debate on 'election reforms', Congress' K C Venugopal questioned the government on excluding the CJI from the election committee to appoint CEC and fellow ECs.

A Supreme Court bench headed by now-retired judge K M Joseph had directed that till a law on appointment of CEC and ECs is framed, the selection committee should have the prime minister, the CJI, and the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha as its members.

But when the government came up with a Bill on the subject, it proposed a selection committee headed by the prime minister with a Union Cabinet minister named by the prime minister, and the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha as members.

The Bill was later passed by Parliament.

Venugopal questioned the exclusion of the CJI and sought a response from the law minister.

Speaking immediately after Venugopal, senior BJP leader and former Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted that when an elected government headed by the prime minister can be trusted with the nuclear button, why can't it be the case when selecting a good CEC or EC.

He wondered why the judiciary should be included in everything when the legislature in its wisdom has passed a law with a selection committee that excluded the CJI.

Prasad claimed even Venugopal agreed that the selection panel proposed by the SC bench was only an interim arrangement.