A day after chief election commissioner (CEC) N Gopalaswami informed the Supreme Court that the CEC has the power to initiate action against an election commissioner, the BJP and the SP on Tuesday withdrew their complaints against election commissioner Navin Chawla from the court.
The BJP, meanwhile, has decided to file a fresh complaint with Gopalaswami seeking Chawla?s removal from the poll panel. Vehemently opposing the CEC?s stand, additional solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam told the apex court Bench comprising of Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice VS Sirpurkar that the government is challenging the stand taken by the CEC and reiterated that ?it is the executive government alone which is empowered to initiate proceedings against the election commissioner.?
However, the court allowed the counsel of BJP leader Jaswant Singh to withdraw the complaint and told the Centre that ?at this stage it was not adjudicating on the issue whether the CEC has the power or not to act on his own in the issue.?
The BJP and SP had challenged Chawla?s continuation as election commissioner alleging that he would not be able to discharge his duties impartially in view of several allegations levelled against him.