PM Modi-Led Panel Set to Meet For Key Election Commissioner Selection Amidst Vacancy and 2024 Poll Preparations

High-level committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to convene on March 15 to choose the election commissioner to fill the post left empty by Anup Chandra Pandey’s retirement in February. However, since Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar is now the only member of the Election Commission, the panel may meet sooner due to Arun Goel’s decision to resign as poll officer just days before the anticipated announcement of the schedule for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The appointment process of election commissioners and CECs

Election commissioners and CECs will be appointed by a new law that the parliament passed in December. Two committees now make up the selection process: a three-member search committee headed by the law minister and composed of two government secretaries, and a three-member selection committee presided over by the prime minister and composed of the opposition leader and a Union Minister who has been recommended by the PM. The selection committee will receive five recommendations from the search committee, but it also has the authority to choose commissioners who are not on this list. The President appoints the CEC or election after that.

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Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury get an invitation

According to what HT has learned, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a senior Congress leader and the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha, received an invitation to the March 15 meeting. The invitation, which was only intended to fill the vacancy left by Pandey’s retirement, was sent to him several hours before the law ministry announced Goel’s resignation in the gazette on Saturday.

Arjun Ram Meghwal, the minister of law, declined to comment on the meeting’s agenda or schedule.

Alok Prasanna, a constitutional law expert and co-founder of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, said: “Constitutionally, there should be at least one Election Commissioner (who is the Chief Election Commissioner). Prior to 1990, there was only Chief Election Commissioner and it was only in 1989 that additional Election Commissioners were appointed. While there may be some disruption in the functioning of the ECI if there is only one EC, constitutionally, there is no problem as long as there is at least one EC who can be designated as the CEC. The actual running of elections depends on the vast number of state level functionaries and union level functionaries who are roped in to help with the process.”

But can an election commissioner be appointed after elections are announced? “Yes, there is no constitutional bar to the appointment of an EC even after the start of the election process. The [Model] Code of Conduct only prohibits making ‘ad-hoc appointments in Government, Public Undertakings etc. which may have the effect of influencing the voters in favor of the party in power’. Appointing the EC is done following constitutional and legal processes and therefore not prohibited in any way even once the elections are announced,” he added.