Plea For Independent Panel To Appoint EC Members

Case At Hand

• A petition to the Supreme Court was filed, requesting the formation of an independent collegium to appoint members of the Election Commission.
• The Association for Democratic Reforms, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl Dsouza, filed the petition.
• They claimed that the practise of the government appointing poll bodies violates the Basic Structure of the Constitution and jeopardizes free and fair elections in a democracy.

The Plea Stated

• The Election Commission is appointed "on the whims and fancies of the executive" and "violates the very basis on which it was founded, thereby making the Commission a branch of the executive."
• According to the petition, several expert committees and commissions have recommended the formation of a neutral collegium to fill vacancies on the Election Commission since 1975.
• The recommendation was also included in the Law Commission's 255th report, which was released in March 2015.
• “The Executive appoints the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners... The Election Commission should be insulated from political and/or Executive interference... Appointing members of the Election Commission on the whims and fancies of the Executive violates the very foundation on which it was established, effectively turning the Commission into a branch of the Executive...”
• It claimed that the government's appointment to the poll body is incompatible with Article 324(2), which states that appointments must be made by the President, and is manifestly unconstitutional.
• “The Election Commission is not only in charge of holding free and fair elections, but it also serves as a quasi-judicial body between different political parties, including the governing government and other parties. In such cases, the Executive cannot be the sole participant in the choice of members of the Election Commission because it gives the ruling party unrestricted power to choose someone whose allegiance to it is guaranteed, making the selection process open to manipulation.”

The Association of Democratic Reforms

• The Association of Democratic Reforms is the organization responsible for several improvements in the electoral process.
• The Association of Democratic Reforms, a registered society under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860, has been at the forefront of electoral and political reforms in the country.
• In recent years, it has been involved in activities such as advocating for open political party operations, undertaking comprehensive analyses of candidates in each election, and analyzing the financial reports of political parties and ministers.
• ADR filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court in 1999, requesting that candidates contesting elections reveal their criminal, financial, and educational backgrounds. Based on this, the Supreme Court made it mandatory for candidates to disclose their criminal, financial, and educational backgrounds prior to the polls by filing an affidavit in 2002 and 2003.
• Then, in April 2008, ADR received yet another landmark order from the Central Information Commission, according to which political parties' income tax returns and assessment orders will be made available to people. Furthermore, is seeking to put political parties and leaders under the purview of the Right to Information Act (RTI).

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