NEW BILL TO remove CJI from SELECT Committee for CEC AND TWO ECs presented in Rajya Sabha . New committee will have a PM, Cabinet minister and LOP as 3 members minus CJI

While yesterday the no confidence motion went for voting finally the BJP led NDA defeating the opposition INDIA bloc, after prime minister’s one and a half hour speech, an important bill on the formation of a committee as wished by the Supreme Court to select new CEC and two ECs passed by the Lok Sabha was introduced in Rajya Sabha. The government showed tremendous hurry in passing this bill in Lok Sabha after the Supreme Court’s version that a credible law should be brought for the selection of a CEC and two election commissioners at the earliest. The Supreme Court had said that till the new law by parliament comes into being , the committee comprising of the prime minister, LOP and chief justice of Supreme Court will continue. But let’s see what is the speciality of this new bill? According to news reports this bill to select new three members of Election Commission, one CEC and two Election Commissioners, the new body will have a PM, a Cabinet minister and Leader of Opposition keeping the chief justice of India out. This sounds weird say Congress leaders. The new selection committee minus the chief justice of India will select new CEC and two ECs after a searching committee of the rank of Cabinet Secretary and two secretaries will chose from five not less than secretary rank officers with some experience in election matters as new incumbents and send them to them. According to news reports this means that the new CEC now would be junior to the cabinet secretary rank and not of the stature of the justice of Supreme Court as used to be earlier. In nutshell the new bill not only keeps the chief justice of India, out of the three member selection committee of the CEC and two election commissioners but also lowers the official status of CEC from a senior judge of Supreme Court to the stature of a secretary equivalent to a junior minister in the government giving the ruling party and the prime minister his/ her fullest say as the LOP in the three member selection committee will be in minority compared to two i. e. PM n Cabinet minister who are two in numbers leaving a lone LOP member in minority, meaning the ruling party will always have the CEC of their choice including the two ECs. Moreover, the general elections are round the corner in 2024 just few months away. The entire election exercise is conducted by the CEC and ECs at the pan India level but they’ll be under the charge of the ruling party government, not independent as before obviously meaning that they will be under the bureaucratic entanglement and governmental pressure.