Former chief election commissioner Navin Chawla passes away

A retired 1969-batch IAS officer of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre, he assumed office as an election commissioner on May 16, 2005, and served in that role till April 20, 2009, after which he served as chief election commissioner till July 29, 2010.

Former CEC S Y Quraishi, who served as an election commissioner when Chawla was CEC and succeeded him as CEC in 2010, said, “I worked with him for four years and it was a pleasure. He was a man with a sense of humour and was very helpful. I had heard stories about his partisanship, but while working with him, not once did I experience that.”

In a statement expressing condolences, the Election Commission said: “During his tenure as CEC, ECI successfully conducted the General Election to the Lok Sabha in 2009 and General Elections to Legislative Assemblies in seven States. Shri Chawla during his tenure, led many reforms including enabling third gender voters to exercise a preference to vote in a new category of “Other” instead of being compelled to vote as ‘Male’ or ‘Female’ and advocated for constitutional reforms to bring on par the process of removal of Election Commissioners with that of the CEC. His leadership and commitment to the electoral process will continue to inspire us at the Election Commission of India.”

The ECI noted Chawla had been inspired by Mother Teresa and had written the authorised biography of her life and work.

Chawla’s tenure in the Election Commission was not without controversy. In 2009, then CEC N Gopalaswami had recommended his removal as election commissioner to the government after the BJP alleged that he was partisan. In 2006, National Democratic Alliance leaders had submitted a petition to the President seeking Chawla’s removal.

Former CEC O P Rawat recalled interacting with Chawla on a few occasions for TV debates and twice in the EC when Rawat was there. “I found him to be pleasant and always proud of the work of the ECI,” he said.