Supreme Court to deliver its verdict on pleas seeking Collegium-like system for appointment of Election Commissioners and CEC today

The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Thursday its order on a batch of pleas seeking a collegium-like system for the appointment of election commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice KM Joseph is likely to give its verdict.

The bench also comprising justices Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and CT Ravikumar had reserved its judgement on the issue on November 24 last year.

The top court had questioned the “haste” and “tearing hurry” with which the Centre appointed ex-bureaucrat Arun Goel as an Election Commissioner, saying his file travelled at “lightning speed” within departments in 24 hours.

The central government had vehemently resisted the observations, with Attorney General R Venkataramani contending the whole issue pertaining to his appointment needed to be looked at in entirety.

The top court had asked how the Union law minister shortlisted a panel of four names that was recommended to the prime minister for appointment as election commissioner when none of them would have completed the stipulated six-year tenure in office.

It had perused the Centre’s original file on Goel’s appointment and said, “What kind of evaluation is this? Although, we are not questioning the merits of Arun Goel’s credentials but the process.”

As the bench questioned the “lightning speed” with which Goel was appointed as an EC without his file even moving within departments for 24 hours, Venkataramani, the government’s law officer, urged the bench not to make observations without looking into the entire issue of the appointment process.

Under the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of

Business) Act, 1991, an EC can have a tenure of six years or up to the age of 65, whichever is earlier.