Amid din in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal introduced the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023 in the Upper House on Thursday.
The Bill seeks to regulate the appointment, conditions of service and term of office of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other Election Commissioners (ECs) and the procedure for transaction of business by the Election Commission.
The Bill is likely to trigger a fresh face-off between the executive and the judiciary, as the legislation will exclude the Chief Justice of India (CJI) from the process to appoint the CEC and ECs.
It proposes that the CECs and ECs will be appointed by the President on the recommendation of a panel which will comprise of the Prime Minister, who will also head the panel, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and a Union Cabinet minister who will be nominated by the PM.
If the Bill comes into effect, it will discontinue a judgment by the Supreme Court in 2023 where a five-judge Constitution bench of the top court on March 2 unanimously ruled that the appointment of the CEC and ECs should be done by the President on the advice of a high-power committee consisting of the PM, Leader of Opposition and the CJI.
The Bench headed by Justice K M Joseph and also consisting of Justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C T Ravikumar had ruled on a batch of petitions seeking a selection process similar to what is followed in the case of the Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Meanwhile, Meghwal will move the Repealing and Amending Bill, 2023 in the Upper House today for consideration and passage to repeal certain enactments and to amend an enactment. The Lok Sabha had passed the Bill on July 28.
The Bill seeks to repeal 65 laws that are obsolete or that have been made redundant by other laws. It also corrects a minor drafting error in the Factoring Regulation Act, 2011.