Bill takes away SC judge stature of ECs; former commissioners flag demotion
Chief Election Commissioners are of the view that some of the provisions of the proposed new Bill for appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners are ‘retrograde’ and ‘unfortunate’ as they would end up diminishing the ‘moral stature’ of the poll panel.
Reason being — the Bill has brought the salary and service conditions of the CEC and ECs on par with the Cabinet Secretary instead of the equivalence they currently hold with the Supreme Court judge.
The concern is over the moral stature and independence of the office and not the monetary aspect as pay scales are similar for SC judges and the Cabinet Secretary.
Former CEC N Gopalaswami termed the move as rather ‘unfortunate’ even as he maintained that even if attempted, no one can take away the high status of the ECI’s office which still works on the touchstone of stalwarts like TN Seshan.
“It is rather unfortunate. It is also at odds with the provision for removal of CEC and ECs which derives from Article 324 of the Constitution and the same process as that for Supreme Court judges. This creates an anomaly of sort between pay and procedure — as constitutionally the CEC/EC is equivalent to a SC judge, while now legislatively he will be equivalent to the top secretary of the government of India,” Gopalaswami told ET.
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He, however, maintained that any such ‘signalling’ is futile as the office of the ECI sustains on its own unique inner dynamic that demands very high benchmarks and almost all CECs/ECs do try their best to meet it.
“This cannot be taken away from ECI given the weight and wealth of its history,” he added. Not
