“It will lead to chaos, uncertainty”: Supreme Court rejects pleas to stay appointment of ECs

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to put on hold the two Election Commissioners' appointments under the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which dropped the Chief Justice of India from the selection panel for Election Commissioners. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta dismissed all the applications seeking stay on the appointment of two Election Commissioners, saying elections are round the corner and stay on the appointment would result in "chaos and uncertainty." The bench said it would pass a detailed order later. "Now they (Election Commissioners) have been appointed, elections are round the corner... There are no allegations against persons appointed. You cannot say that Election Commission is under the thumb of the executive. At this stage we cannot stay the legislation and it will lead to only chaos and uncertainty," said the bench. The bench also questioned the Centre for the speed in which the Search Committee shortlisted candidates and the speed with which two Election Commissioners were selected by the Selection Committee. The apex court, however, clarified that it is not questioning the credentials of the Election Commissioners selected, but on the procedure in which the selection was made. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told the bench that the process had started in February, immediately after the Act came into force. To this, the bench remarked that there were two aspects in the present case, one being whether the Act itself was constitutional and the other being the procedure adopted and added that there could have been an opportunity given for the names to be examined. The top court also issued notice on the plea challenging the constitutional validity of the CEC Act and asked the central government to respond to the same within six weeks. The order of the apex court came on applications filed by Congress leader Ajaya Thakur and others seeking direction to restrain the Centre from appointing new Election Commissioners under the Act. Yesterday, the Centre defended the appointment of the two election commissioners, Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, by a panel that did not include the Chief Justice of India. It filed an affidavit opposing the applications seeking stay on the appointment and the Act, saying there was an attempt to create a row over the appointment of Election Commissioners. The Central government said that a political controversy is being created on the basis of "unsupported and pernicious statements," dispelling any notion of bias or ulterior motives behind the appointment of poll panel officials. (with Agency inputs)