The Supreme Court orders the creation of a bipartisan panel that will include the opposition leader to select election commissioners.
India’s Supreme Court has ordered the establishment of a bipartisan panel comprising the Prime Minister and Chief Justice to select the country’s election commissioners, ending the practice of the government effectively electing them.
India’s Election Commission is an autonomous constitutional authority, but opposition parties have regularly accused it of giving in to the ruling party’s demands, a charge it has denied.
The new panel also includes the leader of the opposition in the Lower House or the opposition party with the highest number of members in the chamber.
“This standard will remain valid until a law is made by parliament,” Judge KM Joseph said on Thursday.
He commissioned a constitutional bench that heard several petitions calling for an independent commission to appoint electoral commissioners.
“The Election Commission of India must undertake the arduous and unenviable task of aloof from all forms of executive subjugation and interference,” he said.
Currently, the country’s president, who generally follows the advice of the government, appoints the chief election commissioner and two commissioners to terms of six years each. Usually they are former civil servants.
Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer representing the petitioners, called the ruling “historic”.
“They have said that the independence of the Election Commission is absolutely essential to democracy, and to ensure that independence you cannot have a system where the government only appoints the Election Commissioners,” he told reporters out of court.
India’s former chief election commissioner, SY Quraishi, said: “Our long-standing demands are being met”.
“Finally SC (Supreme Court) has decided,” he said in a post on Twitter. “The question has been pending for two decades. Good for the perception of neutrality of the Elections Commission.”
