Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, lashed out at the federal government on Saturday over a proposed law that would exclude the Chief Justice of India (CJI) from the panel that selects the Chief
Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs), claiming that the BJP-controlled federal government has capitulated to anarchy. Banerjee stated that the CJI’s position in the three-member panel to pick CEC is critical in opposing the bill that was introduced in the Rajya Sabha earlier this week.
The Trinamool Congress leader said on X, formerly Twitter, “Amidst calls to bow down to the judiciary, the @BJP4India instead bows to anarchy!”
“The CJI is an essential part of the three-person committee that chooses the CEC. We vehemently object to the EC replacing the CJI with a cabinet member.
BJP uneasy over the proposal
The chief minister asserted that the BJP is uneasy over the proposal to omit the CJI from the appointment panel, indicating that “their vote manipulation could suffer.”
This flagrant contempt for the judiciary must be questioned by India! Do they intend to convert the judiciary into a kangaroo court overseen by ministers? We offer judicial petitions for India. Lord, save our nation. Banerjee tacked on.
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The Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023 aims to swap out the Chief Justice of India for a cabinet minister as one of the three members of the selection panel to choose the CEC and election commissioners, with the prime minister and the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha serving as the other two members.
Congress cited a letter
The Congress has already voiced opposition to the plan, citing a 2012 letter from veteran BJP leader L K Advani to then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting bipartisan appointments to constitutional bodies. Advani had suggested that the CEC and ECs be chosen by a committee that included the Chief Justice of India and the leaders of the Opposition in both Houses of Parliament.
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“The bill is an assault on the Constitution, the judiciary, and the people’s rights to elect their own government in a fair and impartial manner,” said Randeep Surjewala, a member of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha.
The selection committee’s makeup, according to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) member Manoj Jha, does not augur well for the independence of the election panel.
He remarked outside of Parliament, “I am astonished but not surprised at how the present dispensation will annihilate everything that we thought was appropriate to constitutional propriety or decency.
The administration, however, emphasized that the Supreme Court had said in March that until Parliament passed legislation governing the selection process, appointments to the poll panel should be made on the advice of a committee made up of the PM, the LoP in the Lok Sabha, and the CJI.
