A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court to restrain the Union government from appointing a new election commissioner under the recently enacted Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment Conditions of Service and Terms of Office) Act, 2023.

Congress leader Jaya Thakur has filed the petition in the aftermath of Arun Goel’s abrupt resignation as election commissioner, which left the three-member poll panel down to one ahead of crucial Lok Sabha elections.

Thakur’s plea seeks a directive from the apex court, urging the Union government to adhere to the guidelines laid down in a previous Supreme Court judgment, which stipulates that election commissioners should be appointed by a panel comprising the Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India, and the Leader of the Opposition.

Also Read: Why did Arun Goel resign as election commissioner? What happens next?

The Chief Election Commissioner And Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service And Term of Office) Act, passed by Parliament in December 2023, effectively replaced the CJI with a cabinet minister as one of the three members of the selection panel.

In January, Thakur approached the apex court challenging the constitutionality of the Act, stating that the provisions of the legislation are violative of the principle of free and fair elections since it does not provide an “independent mechanism” for appointment of the members of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Also Read: Arun Goel resigns as election commissioner: Why ex-IAS officer’s appointment was also controversial

The court, however, refused to stay the new law and issued notice to the Centre while agreeing to examine a batch of petitions challenging the legislation. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta asked senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Jaya Thakur, to serve a copy of the petition to the Centre’s counsel.

“Please stay this law. This is against the separation of powers,” Singh said.

The bench told Singh, “No, without hearing the other side, we can’t. We will issue a notice.”

Arun Goel’s resignation

Arun Goel resigned as election commissioner days ahead of the expected announcement of the schedule for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, triggering intense speculations around his abrupt exit. This is the second resignation by an election commissioner under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. In 2020, Ashok Lavasa resigned as election commissioner to join the Asian Development Bank.

The Congress and other opposition parties asked whether Arun Goel resigned due to any differences with the chief election commissioner or the Narendra Modi government.

“The resignation of Arun Goel as Election Commissioner last evening raises three questions,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said.

“Did he actually resign over differences with the Chief Election Commissioner or with the Modi Government, which does the front-seat driving for all supposedly independent institutions? Or did he resign for personal reasons?

“Or did he, like the Calcutta High Court Judge a few days back, resign to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls on a BJP ticket,” Ramesh said in a post on X.