The Supreme Court
on Friday refused to stay the new law that provides for appointment of the
chief election commissioner and election commissioners by a panel excluding the
Chief Justice of India.
A bench of
Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, however, agreed to examine a batch
of petitions challenging the new law and issued notice to the Centre.
The bench asked
senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Congress leader Jaya Thakur, who
sought a stay on the new law, to serve a copy of the petition to the Centre's
counsel.
"Please stay
this law. This is against the separation of powers," Singh said.
The bench told
Singh, "No, without hearing the other side, we can't. We will issue a
notice." Several petitions, including Thakur's, have been filed in the
apex court amid a political row over dropping the chief justice of India (CJI)
from a panel empowered to choose the chief election commissioner (CEC) and
election commissioners (ECs).
Advocate Gopal
Singh has also moved the top court, seeking quashing of the new law that
accords the central government sweeping powers to make appointments to the poll
body.
The plea filed by
Singh has sought the apex court's direction to implement an "independent
and transparent system of selection, constituting a neutral and independent
selection committee for appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and
Election Commissioners (CEC and ECs)".
The new law
states, "Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners
shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of a Selection
Committee consisting of (a) the Prime Minister Chairperson; (b) the Leader of
Opposition in the House of the People Member; (c) a Union Cabinet Minister to
be nominated by the Prime Minister Member." The opposition has
accused the Modi government of having defied the Supreme Court by dropping the
CJI from the selection panel.
In its March 2023
order, the Supreme Court had said the prime minister, the leader of the
opposition in Lok Sabha, and the CJI would pick the CEC and the ECs.