"Supreme Court to Revisit Election Commissioners' Appointment Law"
Constitution Bench
A Supreme Court bench of at least five judges formed to decide substantial questions of constitutional law.
Collegium system
The judiciary's own mechanism for appointing judges through consultation among senior judges.
Article 324 vests the Election Commission of India with the power of superintendence, direction and control over elections to Parliament, State Legislatures, and the offices of President and Vice-President. Article 324(2) itself expected Parliament to make a law governing appointments to the Commission, but for nearly seven decades no such law existed. The President appointed the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other Election Commissioners (ECs) solely on the advice of the Union Council of Ministers, leaving the entire process in executive hands.
This gap was addressed in Anoop Baranwal v. Union of India (2023), where a Constitution Bench held that appointments could not remain under exclusive executive control. It devised an interim mechanism: a three-member committee of the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition, and the Chief Justice of India, to hold until Parliament legislated. The reasoning echoes a worry the Constitution's framers themselves raised, that an Election Commissioner could become a person under the thumb of the executive. The same anxiety about unchecked power runs through wider constitutional doctrine: courts have held that unguided and uncontrolled discretionary power granted to an executive authority, without legal norms or institutional checks, offends Article 14's guarantee against arbitrariness. The demand for a neutral, detached appointee in institutional design is also not new; the Sarkaria Commission had decades earlier recommended that Governors be appointed as non-political, detached figures, precisely to avoid the perception that a constitutional office is filled to suit the appointing executive.
Parliament responded quickly, enacting the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023. It retained a three-member committee but replaced the Chief Justice of India with a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister, giving the government effective control of two of the three seats.
The 2023 Act's selection committee now comprises the Prime Minister as chairperson, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister. This invites direct comparison with how judicial appointments work. Under the collegium system, appointments to the Supreme Court and High Courts rest with a group of senior judges, with the executive's role limited to consultation. When Parliament tried to introduce direct executive representation into judicial appointments through the 99th Constitutional Amendment and the National Judicial Appointments Commission, the Supreme Court struck the arrangement down in 2015 for compromising judicial independence. …
What is the provision to safeguard the autonomy of the Supreme Court of India?
1.While appointing the Supreme Court Judges, the President of India has to consult the Chief Justice of India.
2.The Supreme Court Judges can be removed by the Chief Justice of India only.
3.The salaries of the Judges are charged on the Consolidated Fund of India to which the legislature does not have to vote.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Consider the following statements:
1.Union Territories are not represented in the Rajya Sabha.
2.It is within the purview of the Chief Election Commissioner to adjudicate the election disputes.
3.According to the Constitution of India, the Parliament consists of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha only.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Which one of the following suggested that the Governor should be an eminent person from outside the State and should be a detached figure without intense political links or should not have taken part in politics in the recent past?
A legislation which confers on the executive or administrative authority an unguided and uncontrolled discretionary power in the matter of application of law violates which one of the following Articles of the Constitution of India?
Discuss the procedures to decide the disputes arising out of the election of a Member of the Parliament or State Legislature under The Representation of the People Act, 1951. What are the grounds on which the election of any returned candidate may be declared void? What remedy is available to the aggrieved party against the decision? Refer to the case laws.
Discuss the role of the Election Commission of India in the light of the evolution of the Model Code of Conduct.
Consider the following statements about the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC): 1. The interim committee prescribed in Anoop Baranwal v. Union of India (2023) included the Chief Justice of India. 2. The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 retained the Chief Justice of India in the selection committee. 3. The CEC can be removed only in the same manner as a Supreme Court judge. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
With reference to the functions of the Election Commission of India, consider the following statements: 1. It adjudicates disputes regarding the validity of an election of a returned candidate. 2. It determines the election schedule, including dates of nomination and polling. 3. The Chief Election Commissioner can be removed by the President in the same manner as a Supreme Court judge. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Match List I with List II:
List I:
1.Anoop Baranwal v. Union of India
2.NJAC case (2015)
3.Sarkaria Commission (1983)
4.Mohinder Singh Gill v. Chief Election Commissioner (1978)
List II:
A.Recommended Governors be detached, non-partisan appointees
B.Struck down the 99th Constitutional Amendment for compromising judicial independence
C.Prescribed an interim PM-LoP-CJI committee for EC appointments
D.Held that wide unchecked discretion is fraught with tyrannical potential
Select the correct combination:
Which article of the Constitution has been interpreted by courts to prohibit conferment of unguided and uncontrolled discretionary power on an executive authority?
Assertion (A): A parliamentary law enacted to override the effect of a Supreme Court judgment does not, by itself, make the underlying constitutional question a new question of law.
Reason (R): Under Article 141, the law declared by the Supreme Court is binding on all courts in India, and a court must apply a settled principle to new facts unless a genuinely new question of interpretation arises.
Which one of the following is correct?
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