A Prime Minister-led panel has on Thursday finalised the names of the two new election commissioners for India. Retired civil servants, Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu have been picked up as the new election commissioners, under the newly established law for the selection procedure.
The panel consisting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and Leader of Opposition Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met on Thursday to finalise the election commissioners from a list of six shortlisted candidates prepared by a search committee headed by the law minister.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury who is the only opposition voice in the panel gave a dissent note and questioned the selection process saying that the shortlisted candidates names were not made available to him beforehand.
Addressing the media after the meeting he said that there was no clarity on how six names were shortlisted from over 200 candidates that are said to have come before the search committee headed by the law minister.
“They (government) have the majority. Earlier, they had given me 212 names, but 10 minutes before the appointment they again gave me just six names. I know that the Chief Justice of India isn't there, The government has made such a law that the CJI doesn't interfere and the central government can choose a favourable name. I am not saying that it's arbitrary but the procedure that is being followed has some lacunae,” he said.
Let's meet the new election commissioners..
Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, hailing from Punjab, is a retired IAS officer of the 1998 batch, Uttarakhand cadre. Sandhu holds an MBBS degree from Government Medical College, Amritsar and has a Master's Degree in History from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. He also has a law degree.
Sandhu was appointed as the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand in 2021 when BJP’s Pushkar Singh Dhami became the Chief Minister. He was set to retire from his post this month. Sandhu has served as the chairperson of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). He also served as additional secretary of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Gyanesh Kumar is also a retired IAS officer from the same batch as Sandhu, but of Kerala cadre. Kumar has served as the secretary at the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. He then served as secretary in the Ministry of Cooperation led by Amit Shah. During his tenure, Kumar oversaw the abrogation of Article 370. Kumar retired from the services after his superannuation on January 31, 2024.
The posts of election commissioners fell vacant after the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey in February and the sudden and shocking resignation of Arun Goel on March 9. Goel would have gone on to become the Chief Election Commissioner if he stayed.
Arun Goel was hurriedly appointed as election commissioner on November 20, 2022; an appointment that invited large-scale criticism from the opposition and was questioned by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.
Goel, a former secretary to the government of India was appointed as the election commissioner within 24 hours of his resignation from his previous post. Goel requested voluntary retirement and resigned as secretary with more than one month left before his retirement from service.
Much like his appointment, the lack of transparency related to his resignation has raised concern among many regarding the competency and ability of the election commission to make unbiased decisions.