Meeting to select new Chief Election Commissioner held, Congress demands postponing until SC hearing

Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu are the two other members in the EC. Gyanesh Kumar is the senior most after Rajiv Kumar and is considered a frontrunner to become the poll body chief.

New Delhi: The Selection Committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi met here on Monday to choose a new Chief Election Commissioner, amid objections by panel member Rahul Gandhi over the deliberations at a time the Supreme Court is set to hear a petition against the law and mechanism for appointment in two days.

At the three-member panel’s meeting also attended by Home Minister Amit Shah and comes a day before CEC Rajiv Kumar is set to retire, sources said Rahul raised his objections at the outset and demanded a postponement of the meeting while submitting a note detailing his opposition. Rahul did not participate in the proceedings that recommended names to the President.

As the meeting started and just as the discussion on names was about to commence, sources said Rahul intervened and raised his reservations about the procedure adopted. He told the Prime Minister and the Home Minister that there are some fundamental issues regarding the constitution of the committee, as it is dominated by the government.

He referred to the Supreme Court judgment which outlined the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and Chief Justice of India as members of the Selection Committee and claimed that the government passed a law to override it by passing a law in Parliament when a large number of Opposition MPs were under suspension, sources said.

As he submitted his note on the issue, sources said he was told that it would be considered as his dissent note and included in official documents. Rahul did not participate in further proceedings of the committee though Congress sources refused to call it a walkout.

The process to appoint a new CEC has started, even as the SC has fixed February 19 for hearing a petition on the validity of The Chief Election Commissioner and the Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Office, Terms of Office) Act, 2023, which omits the CJI from the selection panel.

Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu are the two other members in th EC. Gyanesh Kumar is the senior most after Rajiv Kumar and is considered a frontrunner to become the poll body chief.

While there is no official word on what Rahul conveyed in the meeting held at 5:30 PM, Congress held a press conference with senior leaders Ajay Maken and Abhishek Manu Singhvi asking why the government could not have waited for another 48 hours to hold the meeting when the SC is seized of the matter.

By removing the Chief Justice of India from the Selection Committee, he said, the government has made it clear it "wants control and not to preserve the credibility" of the Election Commission.

"It was just a matter of 48 hours and the government should have approached the apex court for an early hearing of the petition. It is our suggestion that the Central government adjourn this meeting until after the hearing AND instruct its counsels to appear and assist the court so that the hearing may be an effective one. Only then, can a decision be taken in earnest," Singhvi said.

He said the Congress cannot ignore that the Selection Committee, which is “partisan and non-neutral mechanism”, is in “clear and direct violation” of the Supreme Court’s Judgement of 2 March, 2023, which had the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and the CJI as members of the selection panel.

The union government "wants to ensure the creation of a Committee that will only allow the appointment of such candidates that will never threaten its (government's existence. Why else would the Supreme Court’s direction to have the CJI on the Committee be dropped? No answer has been given, either within Parliament or outside," Singhvi said.

This is the first time that a CEC is selected under the provisions of the new law. Before this, Gyanesh Kumar and Sandhu had been selected under the new law, which came into effect following a Supreme Court judgement mandating a procedure for appointment.

While the SC said the government could bring in a law to regulate the mechanism of appointment, the government omitted CJI from the panel and included a Union Minister of Prime Minister's choice.

Earlier, Election Commissioners and Chief Election Commissioners (CECs) were appointed by the President on the recommendations of the government.