Can the CEC recommend EC's removal suo motu?

  The Supreme Court in the Seshan case held that the Article 324(5) proviso for the removal from office of the CEC only through impeachment (as in the case of Supreme Court judges) as well as the proviso that the Election Commissioners shall not be removed except on the recommendation of the CEC (“based on intelligible, and cogent considerations”) was designed to protect the independence of the Election Commission as a body from political or executive arbitrariness. The Court specifically held that “if…the power [of recommending removal of an Election Commissioner] were to be exercisable by the CEC as per his whim and caprice, the CEC himself would become an instrument of oppression and would destroy the independence of the ECs…if they are required to function under the threat of the CEC recommending their removal.”