SC to pronounce judgement on March 2 on plea for independent mechanism for ECs' appointment

The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its judgement on Thursday on a batch of petitions seeking a Collegium-like system for the appointment of the election commissioners (ECs) and the chief election commissioner (CEC).

A Constitution bench of Justice K M Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C T Ravikumar had reserved judgment in the matter on November 24, 2022.

As to the SC's website, two judgments, one each by Justices Joseph and Rastogi, would be pronounced at 10.30 am on Thursday on the petitions filed by Anoop Baranwal, Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, NGO Association for Democratic Reforms and Dr Jaya Thakur.

Attorney General R Venkataramani had earlier opposed the plea before the court saying that if it were to begin to doubt every step taken by the government in the process of appointment of the election commissioner, then it has implications on the integrity and independence of the institution.

The bench had then questioned the tearing hurry on making appointment of the election commissioner (EC) Arun Goel during the hearing of the matter.

The court had asked the government produce the files relating to the Goel's appointment in order to ascertain the mechanism and the process for it.