Rajya Sabha Passes Bill On Appointment Of Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners

Key provisions of the bill includes the replacement of the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991. The new legislation covers aspects such as the appointment, salary, and removal of the CEC and other election commissioners. The president would appoint the CEC and ECs based on the recommendation of a selection committee, comprising the prime minister, a union cabinet minister, and the leader of the opposition or the leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha. The recommendations of this committee would remain valid even in the absence of a full committee. A search committee, headed by the Law Minister, would propose a panel of names to the selection committee, with eligibility criteria requiring candidates to have held a position equivalent to the secretary to the central government. The salary and conditions of service for the CEC and ECs were set to be equivalent to that of the cabinet secretary, deviating from the previous equivalence with a Supreme Court judge's salary.

However, after concerns were raised over the pay disparity by former CECs who asserted that the proposed changes downgraded the status of the election commission, the union government introduced an amendment to maintain the salary and perks of the CEC and ECs at the level of a Supreme Court judge, rather than aligning them with that of a cabinet secretary. The union government's amendment also introduced alterations to the search committee and the removal process of the CEC and ECs. The amendment also includes a clause safeguarding the CEC and ECs from legal proceedings related to actions taken during their tenure, provided such actions were carried out in the discharge of official duties. The amendment aimed to shield these officials from civil or criminal proceedings related to their official functions.

Notably, the bill drops the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee. For more context, in March this year, a constitution bench of the Supreme Court had ruled that the election commissioners shall be selected by a committee comprising the prime minister, the leader of opposition, and the chief justice, till the parliament frames a law prescribing the selection process. The bench led by Justice KM Joseph passed the direction to ensure the independence of the election commissioners. 

During the debate on the election commissioners bill, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar said, "The parliament is the supreme body when it comes to law-making. We cannot suffer interventions of any other organ, be it executive or judiciary. Reflections in the Supreme Court are not binding on the parliament. There cannot be any interference from any other entity, be it the executive or the judiciary, on law-making." The vice-president, who has openly expressed his opprobrium of several of the Supreme Court's decisions, including Kesavananda Bharati and the one striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission, made this remark in response to Congress legislator RS Surjewala referring to the top court's recent judgment on the appointment of election commissioners. 

The election commissioners bill was passed by the upper house, even as members of opposition parties staged a walkout today in protest against what they have described as executive overreach and a chipping away of the independence of the election commission.