Govt to drop discussion on EC appointment bill in special parliament session: Report

livemint.com:

Narendra Modi on Monday chaired a union cabinet meeting amid the ongoing 5-day special parliament session. While the agenda of the union cabinet meeting was not announced, speculations are rife that "historic decisions" will be taken, in reference to PM Modi's earlier comment. Before the special session of the Parliament commenced, the secretariats had issued an official statement chalking out the agenda of the special parliament session.

The statement mentioned the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023 as part of the agenda. However, latest reports have suggested that government may not push for passage of the bill on appointment of CEC and election commissioners in the five-day session of Parliament, news agency PTI reported citing people familiar with the developments. The bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on 10 August.

The people have informed PTI that one view within the government is to refer the bill to the standing committee on law and justice. Some former CECs, including N Gopalaswamy, V S Sampat and S Y Quraishi, had on Saturday written to the prime minister opposing the provision to equate the CEC and the ECs to the cabinet secretary. Opposition leaders spoke against the bill on Sunday at an all-party meeting convened by the government on the eve of the Parliament session.