The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled out Chief Election Commission and ECs will be selected by a panel comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India, and the Leader of Opposition until Parliament brings a law.

The judgment was pronounced by a 5-judge bench headed by Justice K.M. Joseph.

While pronouncing the verdict on petitions seeking reform in the process for the appointment of members of the Election Commission of India, the Apex Court, in a unanimous verdict, said elections should undoubtedly be fair and the buck stops with the ECI to ensure its purity is maintained.

Justices Joseph and Rastogi read out their separate judgements and declared that the independence of ECI requires a collegium with the participation of the CJI. Justice Joseph also said RCI must have an independent secretariat, rule-making powers as well as an independent budget to be able to function independently.

The Court further said the purity of elections in a democracy must be maintained or else it would lead to disastrous consequences.

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Currently, the Chief Election Commissioner and two commissioners for a tenure of six years each are appointed by the President of India under Article 324(2) of the Constitution.

This provision further stipulates that the President, who acts on the aid and advice of the Prime Minister and the council of ministers, will make the appointments “subject to the provisions of any law made on that behalf by Parliament”.

On November 24, the Apex Court reserved its verdict after wrapping up the arguments in a batch of four public interest litigations (PILs) that have pressed for the issuance of directives for setting up a neutral and independent selection panel for recommending names to the President for appointments as CEC and ECs.

The petitions were argued by senior counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan and advocate Prashant Bhushan and complained that Parliament has not framed legislation despite a mandate under Article 324(2).

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Kamal Nath, who was occupying two posts in Congress, has resigned as Madhya Pradesh’s Opposition leader ahead of next year’s assembly polls and will continue as the state Congress chief. He resigned from the post as per the party’s ‘one person-one post’ policy.

Soon after accepting his resignation, the Congress announced that Dr Govind Singh will take over as the Congress Legislature Party leader of Madhya Pradesh.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi accepted Nath’s resignation saying that he had been relieved of his duties with immediate effect.

Dr Govind Singh, who is seen as a close confidant of former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh, is a seven-time time sitting MLA from Lahar seat of Bhind district, which is part of Jyotiraditya Scindia’s home turf, the Gwalior-Chambal region.

Kamal Nath, who has been at BJP’s target for the last few days for the dual posts, said that he had already made up his mind to give up one of the two posts, but the party had asked him to continue working on both positions.

Kamal Nath has served as the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister for about 15 months after the Congress surprised the BJP to win the 2018 assembly elections. However, he was forced to resign after Jyotiraditya Scindia and his loyalists defected to the BJP, helping the BJP return to power.

However, the Congress government fell in March 2020 after a political turmoil in the state following a slew of resignations by sitting MLAs. Nath then assumed the post of Congress Legislature Party leader in July 2020.

The Congress has recently changed its leadership in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.

Earlier this month, Congress president Sonia Gandhi appointed Amarinder Singh Brar (Raja Warring) as the new chief of the party’s Punjab unit, and former Rajya Sabha member Pratap Singh Bajwa as the new legislature party leader.

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The Samajwadi Party chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has made ways for his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav to become the Leader of Opposition. His uncle could be appointed as the leader of the legislature party in the Uttar Pradesh assembly after the meeting of party legislature.

At present, no official statement has been issued by the Samajwadi Party in this regard.

The Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Singh Yadav is the MLA from Janswant Nagar constituency of UP’s Manipuri district.

The decision has come after an hour-long conversation between Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav.

The alliance of Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal has jointly bagged 117 seats in the 403-assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh. With 111 seats, this election saw an increase in the seats of the Samajwadi Party as compared to the last election. While, the BJP alliance had got 273 seats.

Apart from these two rivals, the Congress and Raja Bhaiyya’s Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) have won 2 seats each.

Mayawati’s BSP has won a single seat from Rasra constituency of Ballia district while APP and Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM has not open its account in UP.

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