Curative petition filed over SC’s ruling in CEC, EC’s appointment law

A curative petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking recall of the order that referred the petitions challenging the law on the appointment of chief election commissioner and election commissioners to a Constitution bench. The petition said there was reasonable apprehension of bias against one of the judges who decided the case.

The petition was filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur, one of the petitioners challenging the CEC & ECs (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023. On September 23, a bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma gave a split verdict on whether the petitions should be heard by a five-judge Constitution bench. They later passed a common order placing the matter before the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to constitute a five-judge bench.

Thakur’s plea seeks recall of the September 23 order based on a “reasonable likelihood of bias,” as news reports indicated that the son of one of the judges (Justice Sharma) appears for the Election Commission of India (ECI) before the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

A curative petition is the last judicial recourse available to a litigant to overturn a verdict of the Supreme Court.

Two days after the judgment was delivered, reports surfaced that justice Sharma’s son represents the ECI among other government panels before the Madhya Pradesh high court. Thakur stated that this fact was unknown to them during the hearing on the challenge to the 2023 law.