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Arun Goel resigns as election commissioner: Why ex-IAS officer's appointment was also controversial
Arun Goel's resignation as election commissioner leaves the Election Commission of India with only one of its three mandated top officials in their posts.
The abrupt resignation of Arun Goel as Election Commissioner days before the expected announcement of the schedule for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has raised eyebrows, with the Congress party claiming that the government doesn't want a “free and fair election.” Arun Goel’s term was until November 2027 and he was slated to become the Chief Election Commissioner in 2025.
His resignation has left the three-member Election Commission of India down to a single office-bearer in CEC Rajiv Kumar after Anup Chandra Pandey retired as a commissioner last month.
"India now has only ONE Election Commissioner, even as ... elections are to be announced in few days. Why?" Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post on X.
He said India needs to stop "the systematic decimation of our independent institutions".
Also Read: Why did Arun Goel resign as election commissioner? What happens next?
Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale said it was concerning that two appointments are to be made to the panel ahead of the general elections.
"Modi Govt has introduced a new law where Election Commissioners will now be appointed with a majority vote of PM Modi & one Minister chosen by him," he said, referring to The Chief Election Commissioner And Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service And Term of Office) Act.
The Act, which came into effect on January 2, has provisions for a Selection Committee, chaired by the prime minister, leader of the opposition and a Union minister, to make recommendations to the President for appointment of CEC and other ECs.
"Ergo, before 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Modi will now appoint two out of the three Election Commissioners after today's resignation. This is very very concerning," Gokhale said.
Controversy around Goel's appointment
Goel’s appointment as election commissioner was also mired in controversy. He took voluntary retirement from the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) on November 18, 2022. He was due to retire on December 31, 2022. Goel was serving as the secretary in the Ministry of Heavy Industries at the time of his retirement.
The bureaucrat was appointed as election commissioner just a day after his voluntary retirement, prompting the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) to move the Supreme Court. The plea challenging the appointment said it was arbitrary and violative of the institutional integrity and independence of the Election Commission Of India. ADR said that Goel seemed to have “remarkable foresight” to seek voluntary retirement ahead of his appointment as EC.
A bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna dismissed the petition in August 2023 while observing that a Constitution bench of the court had considered the issue and had eventually decided not to quash it.
