NEW DELHI: Taking note of the alacrity with which the government granted VRS to bureaucrat Arun Goel and appointed him as election commissioner, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Centre to submit all the original files related to the appointment.
The five-judge bench headed by Justice K M Joseph said it wants to know if there was any “hanky-panky” because Goel’s appointment happened while it was hearing a plea seeking a collegium-like system for the Election Commission of India. The Centre should not have any problem submitting the relevant files if everything was done as per procedure, the bench observed. The court gave the Centre time till Thursday to produce the files.
The direction came after senior advocate Prashant Bhushan told the bench that Goel, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Punjab cadre and a secretary-level official, was given VRS on Friday and appointed as EC on Saturday to enable him to start working from Monday.
“The government appointed someone in a single day and no one knows what process was followed or what safeguards were taken,” Bhushan said. Asking Attorney General R Venkataramani if the government has any hesitation in presenting the file, the bench observed that the appointment was inappropriate as the matter was being heard by the Constitution bench.
When the AG objected to Goel’s appointment being dragged into a case where the court is considering a larger issue, Justice Joseph said, “We would like to know… because you are claiming that everything is going on smoothly. We don’t think it’s a matter where we should be withholding information. This is not a matter related to the appointment of military personnel.”
The bench also observed that the Chief Election Commissioner should be a strong-willed person who will not hesitate to act even against the prime minister if need be. “Suppose there is some allegation against the prime minister and the CEC has to act. But the CEC is weak-kneed. He does not act. Is it not a complete breakdown of the system? The CEC is supposed to be insulated from political influence and should be independent,” the bench remarked.
Venkataramani told the bench that there had to be a trigger point for the top court to interfere in such matters. The AG also told the bench that the appointments were on the basis of seniority and there was no separate appointment procedure for CEC.
‘NEED A CEC WHO CAN ACT EVEN AGAINST THE PM’
The Constitution bench said the person appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner must be independent and should be willing to act even against the prime minister in the event of serious allegation