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SC to hear plea to restrain fresh appointments to ECI under new law on March 15
The prime minister-chaired high-powered committee on selecting election commissioners is likely to meet this week to finalise the name.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a plea by the non-profit Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) on March 15 to restrain the Union government from appointing election commissioners under the new law.
The matter has been listed for hearing after two vacancies in the three-member poll panel following the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey in February and the abrupt resignation of Arun Goel.
A high-level committee chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to meet this week to select the election commissioner for the position left vacant after Pandey's resignation, according to a person aware of the matter.
The selection panel under the new legislation has the prime minister, a Union minister and the Leader of the opposition as its members.
Also Read: Arun Goel resigns as election commissioner: Why ex-IAS officer's appointment was also controversial
In March last year, the Supreme Court, in response to a writ petition, directed that the appointment of Chief Election Commissioners and other ECs shall be made by the President based on the advice tendered by a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha or leader of the largest opposition party in the House and the Chief Justice of India.
The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, replaced the CJI with a Union minister, a move critics see as the government's attempt to control the watchdog which oversees the country's democratic exercise.
Days before the poll panel was expected to announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections, Arun Goel resigned last Friday, making it the second resignation by an election commissioner under the Modi government.
Ashok Lavasa had resigned as election commissioner in August 2020. He had given dissent notes on various model code of conduct violation decisions taken by the Election Commission during the last Lok Sabha polls.
