Make A House Call

EC does a great job holding polls. Let Parliament decide who should make appointments in EC

The legal challenge to the appointment of election commissioners saw the Supreme Court bench make strong observations on the current selection process. The bench suggested that the Chief Justice of India’s presence in the appointment committee would be appropriate and that Chief Election Commissioners were getting very brief tenures despite the six-year term provided for them. The Centre countered, questioning the wisdom of judicial intervention and citing the separation of powers doctrine. Demands for bipartisan appointments to the Election Commission have been around for decades, but governments have seldom agreed. In that context, the present constitutional challenge is an interesting development.