Supreme Court defers hearing on pleas against CEC and ECs appointments, to hear case on March 19

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh indicated that the matter would be listed after the Holi festival break due to paucity of time.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the pleas challenging the legality of a 2023 law on appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners could be taken up for hearing on March 19, 2025.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh gave the tentative date as advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, orally mentioned the matter for an early hearing.

Bhushan said that a new CEC and an EC had already been appointed under the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service, and Term of Office) Act of 2023.

He vehemently submitted that the case was extremely important and the hearing would not take up much time, and stressed that the petitioners’ counsel would wrap up the arguments in one hour.

However, the bench said it would not be able to provide a date earlier than March 19, as there were no dates in between.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, earlier, asked the court to adjourn the matter as he would be occupied in a constitution bench hearing. Bhushan had objected to Mehta's request.

He said this is an important case and it should not be adjourned solely due to the unavailability of Mehta. He said any one of the 17 law officers in the Supreme Court could appear for the central government.

Advocate Varun Thakur, appearing for Congress leader Jaya Thakur, said three appointments were made by the government under the new law, which was under challenge.

On February 17, the government appointed EC Gyanesh Kumar as the next CEC. Kumar is the first CEC to be appointed under the new law and his term would run till January 26, 2029. He took charge as the CEC on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Vivek Joshi, a 1989-batch Haryana-cadre IAS officer, was appointed as an election commissioner. Born on May 21, 1966, Joshi (58) would serve in the poll panel till 2031.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra also filed a an application in support of the petitioners.

Earlier, Bhushan had argued that the top court in its March 2023 verdict had set up a panel comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition, and the CJI to appoint the CEC and election commissioners (ECs). In December 2023, the Centre enacted The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023. The new law has replaced the Chief Justice of India by a minister on a panel to be set up for the purpose of selecting the CEC and ECs, which was directly in conflict with a judgment delivered by the apex court.

The Constitution bench judgment in Anoop Baranwal Vs Union of India had in March, 2023 declared that the appointment of CEC and ECs would be made by the President on advice of a panel, comprising Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and Chief Justice of India, "until a law is put in place in this regard".

The court had earlier on March 21, 2024 refused to stay the new law for appointment (CEC) and ECs, saying the manner in which the government went about expediting the appointments was "unnecessary and avoidable" but it could not stay the legislation as this will only lead to chaos and uncertainty.