Collegium For Appointing Election Commissioners Will Enhance Their Independence : Former CEC SY Quraishi

Commenting that the system of appointment of Election Commissioners is defective, former Chief Election Commissioner Dr.SY Quraishi said the process should be revamped to ensure the neutrality and independence of the Election Commission of India.Speaking in an interview with LiveLaw, he said, "I have spoken on many occasions that the most powerful Commission in the world has the most defective system of appointment. Unilaterally the Executive of the day is appointing the Election Commissioners whereas all over the world there is a wider system of consultation".He was speaking in the context of a Constitution Bench of Supreme Court recently reserving judgment on PILs seeking an independent mechanism to appoint Election Commissioners. One of the suggestions made before the Court was to have a "collegium" comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of Opposition to select Election Commissioners.Quraishi, who was the CEC during 2010-2012, said that in many countries, there is Parliamentary scrutiny of the appointments of Election Commissioners. In some countries, there is a live interview of the candidates in the national television.The former bureaucrat said that although his appointment was under the existing system, he had always raised concerns about the process. "This system needs to improve. That's what we have been demanding. As CEC, although I was a beneficiary of the old system, I wrote to the government and before me several of my predecessors wrote the same thing to the government seeking reforms. Hopefully this bench will decide that there will be a collegium..", he said.He pointed out the for the appointment of the CBI Director, we already have a "collegium" system where a High Powered Committee of PM, CJI and the LoP approves the appointments. "We are already familiar with the collegium system. We have collegium for CVC, CIC and even Director of the CBI. Although the Director of CBI is not a statutory body and is just a head of a department, the Supreme Court decided that there should be a collegium as the CBI director performs a sensitive function. Then the Election Commission, which is a Constitutional body performing politically sensitive functions, surely deserves to have a collegium", he opined.Regarding the Centre's opposition to judicial interference in the matter, he said that the Court has every right to ask why a law has not been made for the appointment process of Election Commissioners as envisaged by Article 324(2) of the Constitution of India even after 70 years."It is the Executive which initiates the proceedings in the Parliament. So it is the failure of the successive executives", he said.As regards the Court questioning the Government over the "tearing hurry" shown in appointing Arun Goel as the Election Commissioner while the matter was being heard, Qureishi said "it seems the Government has been caught on the wrong foot"."The post was lying vacant since May. There were two States going to the polls -Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. And the Government felt no urgency at all, whereas the elections to two states are important matters. The government did not find it necessary to fill the vacancy of the third member, and suddenly in 12 hours if they do it so, obviously the question will be raised and that is what the court has asked", he said.Qureishi highlighted that having an independent mechanism will boost the public confidence in the system."Although over the last 70 years, the government of the day has always appointed the Election Commissioners, except for one or two, all of them have conducted themselves very well. They have acquitted themselves with honor. So much so that the Election Commission of India has acquired worldwide reputation. India's elections are considered model elections. Hillary Clinton went to the extent of calling it the gold standard. So despite the faulty system of appointment, the CECs have been conducting themselves well and we hope that they will behave well in future as well. But hope can never be a strategy. There has to be an institutional mechanism. There has to be institutional check".He said that nobody has questioned the collegium system for appointment for the CBI Director. "If the Leader of Opposition is involved in this decision making, at least the opposition parties will not be able to raise their finger against the incumbent ECs. Therefore not only it will appear it will be a fair neutral system, at least a perception of independence will be there and that will boost the public confidence in the system", he said."If a Leader of Opposition was also signatory to my appointment, I would have felt much stronger, much more confident. Not that I did not act without fairness. You know there was the Law Minister of the land belonging to the same party which appointed me. But we took action against him and two three other ministers. But that is our individual style of management. But everybody may not have the same ...

Collegium For Appointing Election Commissioners Will Enhance Their Independence : Former CEC SY Quraishi

Manu Sebastian

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