SC to hear petitions against appointment of CEC, ECs under 2023 law on May 14

The Supreme Court on Wednesday has fixed May 14 to hear a batch of petitions challenging the appointment of the chief election commissioner (CEC) and election commissioners (EC) under the 2023 law.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan fixed the date after advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), urged the bench to consider urgent hearing in the matter.

Bhushan, appearing for a petitioner NGO challenging the appointment process, said the issue was covered by the Constitution bench verdict of 2023. Justice Kant told Bhushan that the court will take up the matter on May 14.

The court was hearing a batch of petitions filed by ADR, Congress leader Jaya Thakur among others questioning the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 as being violative of the Constitution as it fails to preserve free and fair elections, which forms part of the basic structure of the Constitution.

The petitions claimed that the law violates a Constitution Bench decision of the apex court in Anoop Baranwal case (2023) which laid down that CECs and ECs will be selected by a high-level committee headed by Prime Minister and will comprise of CJI and leader of opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha.

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On March 15, 2024, the top court refused to stay the appointments of the new ECs under the 2023 law which excluded the CJI from the selection panel and deferred the hearing on a batch of pleas against the appointments.

The NGO challenged the CJI’s exclusion from the high-level panel envisaged under Sections 7 and 8 of the 2023 Act.

The court had earlier turned down requests by the petitioners to stay the law and had sought response from the Union of India on the petitions.

The new law was cleared by Parliament in December 2023 and the same received Presidential assent on December 28 that year.

“Sections 7 and 8 of the 2023 Act are violative of principles of free and fair elections, apart from being contrary to the principles of laid down in the case of Anoop Baranwal v Union of India”, one of the petitions filed by Jaya Thakur said.