Ex-bureaucrats Gyanesh Kumar, Sukhbir Sandhu appointed new ECs

NEW DELHI: The Law Ministry on Thursday issued a notification announcing the appointments of former bureaucrats Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar as the new Election Commissioners.

A selection committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met earlier in the day to recommend their names.

Earlier in the day, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is a Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Lok Sabha, gave his dissent note on the selection, raising questions over the procedure. He said he had sought the names of the shortlisted candidates for the posts but was provided 212 names the night before the committee met.

Talking to media persons soon after the meeting of the selection panel concluded, Chowdhury said six names came up before the panel for the selection of the two election commissioners and the names of Sandhu and Kumar were finalised by a majority of members of the high-powered panel.

The six shortlisted names were that of Utpal Kumar Singh, Pradeep Kumar Tripathi, Gyanesh Kumar, Indevar Pandey, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, Sudhir Kumar Gangadhar Rahate, all former bureaucrats.

Under the new law, the selection panel is chaired by the Prime Minister. It has as members one Union minister — Home Minister Amit Shah — as nominated by the government and the leader of the largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha.

“Of the six names, the names of Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu were finalised for appointment as election commissioners,” Chowdhury told journalists.

While Kumar during his tenure in the Union Home Ministry oversaw the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Sandhu is a former chief secretary of Uttarakhand. Both are 1988-batch officers of the Indian Administrative Service and belong to the Kerala and Uttarakhand cadres, respectively.

The Congress leader said: “I have given my dissent note as I had 212 names with me and the proposal from the government was of only six names. I did not agree.”

He claimed that he got the names of the candidates who will occupy the top positions in the Election Commission just 10 minutes before their appointment. It was merely for the sake of formality, Chowdhury said.

Before a new law was passed by Parliament for the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners, the selection panel, as stipulated in the Supreme Court judgement, headed by the prime minister, comprised the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the CJI. Under the new law, the CJI was replaced by a Cabinet minister of the Prime Minister’s choice.

Search committee head Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal was also present at the meeting.

Chowdhury said: “I was invited to select two election commissioners. But it was a fait accompli that the chosen two will be selected. However, I tried to intervene in an appropriate manner...That is why before my arrival in Delhi, I wrote a letter asking for the shortlisted aspirants.”

“They have given me the list but it had (the names of) all 212 aspirants. Is it humanly possible for me to examine 212 names to find out the most competent persons among them?” Chowdhury asked.

He said he was shown the six names after they were scrutinised and selected by the search committee, and 10 minutes before the meeting. “I certainly put out my dissent note specifically,” he said.

The two vacancies in the Election Commission had arisen after the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey on February 14 and the sudden resignation of Arun Goel ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Goel’s resignation was notified on Saturday last.

Chowdhury said “the majority (in the selection panel) is in favour of the government, whatever it wants will happen” and “the election commissioners were selected according to the wishes of the government”.

After the two selected Election Commissioners assume charge, the three-member Election Commission will be working with full strength.