The Supreme Court on Thursday held that the appointment of members of the Election Commission of India (ECI) should be done on the advice of a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of the Opposition (or the leader of the single largest opposition party) in the Lok Sabha, Bar and Bench reported.
The Court was rendering its decision on a batch of pleas challenging the current system of appointing members of the ECI on the ground that the executive enjoys the power to make appointments in violation of Article 324(2) of the Constitution of India, the report said.
A Constitution Bench comprising Justices KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and CT Ravikumar noted that "the faith of the electorate in the very process, which underlies democracy itself, stands shaken. The impact of 'big money' and its power to influence elections, the influence of certain sections of media, makes it also absolutely imperative that the appointment of the Election Commission, which has been declared by this Court to be the guardian of the citizenry and its Fundamental Rights, becomes a matter, which cannot be postponed further," the Live Law reported.
In the judgment pronounced by Justice Joseph, the Court noted that there is a huge surge in the role of money power and criminalisation of politics and that a large section of the media has abdicated its role and become partisan, Bar and Bench report noted.
Justice Rastogi, according to the report, added that the removal of the Chief Election Commissioner should be in a like manner and on like grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court.
Further, the removal of election commissioners would be made only on the recommendation of the Chief Election Commissioner. He further opined that it was desirable that grounds for removal of other election commissioners shall be the same as the Chief, the report added.