Former chief election commissioner Navin Chawla who ushered in reforms for third gender passes away

New Delhi: Former chief election commissioner (CEC) Navin Chawla, who ushered in a key reform for third gender voters, passed away on Saturday. He was 79.

Condoling the passing of Chawla, the Election Commission said he led many reforms, including enabling third gender voters to exercise a preference to vote in a new category of 'Other', instead of being compelled to vote as 'Male' or 'Female'.

The poll body recalled in a statement that Chawla as the 16th CEC advocated for constitutional reforms to bring on par the process of removal of election commissioners with that of the CEC.

"His leadership and commitment to the electoral process will continue to inspire us at the Election Commission of India," the statement said.

Another former CEC, S Y Quraishi, told PTI that he met Chawla some 10 days back when the latter had informed him that he was getting admitted to hospital for a brain surgery.

"He passed away this morning at Apollo Hospital," Quraishi said, adding that he was cheerful when they last met.

Chawla was a 1969-batch officer of Indian Administrative Services (IAS), AGMUT cadre.

"Sad to know about passing of Shri Navin Chawla, former Chief Election Commissioner of India. May his soul rest in peace," Quraishi wrote on X.

A former bureaucrat, Chawla was the election commissioner (EC) between 2005 and 2009, and then chief election commissioner from April 2009 to July 2010.

Chawla had a controversial tenure in the poll body, with the then opposition BJP accusing him of being partisan.

In 2009, CEC N Gopalaswami recommended to the government to remove Chawla, who was an election commissioner at the time.

The recommendation, on which the government did not act, was based on a petition filed by the BJP which complained against Chawla's "partisan" functioning.

In 2006, the then leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, L K Advani, and 204 MPs submitted a petition to the then president APJ Abdul Kalam, seeking the removal of Chawla as an election commissioner for alleged partisanship.

The BJP also took the matter to the Supreme Court.

Born on July 30, 1945, Chawla did his schooling from The Lawrence School, Sanawar, before moving to St Stephen's College here.

He was assigned a number of responsibilities during the course of his civil service career.

Although there were occasional stints in other union territories, his work life remained largely in Delhi.

He became a Union secretary before being appointed an EC. He oversaw the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Chawla was also known as the biographer of Mother Teresa. The biography titled Mother Teresa was first published in the UK in 1992, and has seen many translations and editions since then.

He also co-authored "Faith and Compassion: The Life and Work of Mother Teresa" with photographs by Raghu Rai. It was published in the UK in 1997.

As CEC, Chawla recommended to the law ministry a constitutional amendment to bring on par the process of removal of election commissioners with that of the CEC -- by impeachment by two-thirds of MPs present and voting.

Citing two previous episodes, including the demand by his predecessor for his removal, Chawla wrote to the then prime minister Manmohan Singh and urged the government for an early amendment to give protection to election commissioners.

The system for removal of CEC and ECs has remained unchanged though.

Chawla also pushed for allowing third gender persons to register themselves as voters in 'Others' or 'O' category, which is now the norm as EC identifies voters as 'Male', 'Female' and 'Others' or third gender.