Plea in Supreme Court against appointment of CEC Gyanesh Kumar and two Commissioners

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu (left) and Vivek Joshi. (File Photo)

A plea filed in the Supreme Court has challenged the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, on the ground that it violated the procedure laid down by a 2023 law governing such appointments.

The petition by Suri Payala stated that as per Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, the Search Committee was required to draw up a panel of five names for each EC vacancy, but only six names were proposed for the two vacancies when they arose in March 2024.

The petition points out that the SC in its March 22, 2024, order while refusing to stay the 2023 Act had, however, said that section 6 “postulates five prospective candidates which appears to mean that for two vacant posts ten prospective candidates should have been shortlisted”. The plea said that the Secretary, Legislative Department, had forwarded to the Leader of Opposition a list of over 200 persons even before the Search Committee had finalised a shortlist. The next day, the panel recommended six names and picked Kumar and Sandhu.

He wondered if this subscribed to the requirements of section 6 of the Act.