Selection of poll panel: When BJP leader LK Advani wanted CJI on board to show no ‘bias’

In March, the SC had ruled that a high-powered committee of the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition, and the Chief Justice of India would select the three-member ECI until Parliament passed a law governing the appointment of CEC and ECs. The apex court pronounced its verdict on a 2015 PIL challenging the constitutional validity of the practice of the Centre appointing members of the Election Commission.

Over the years, the question of the independence of the ECI from the Executive has cropped up several times, given that the persons appointed to the posts have been retired senior bureaucrats.

This exclusion of the CJI from the Bill proposed by the Modi government is different from the BJP’s earlier view.

On June 2, 2012, L K Advani, then the BJP Parliamentary Party chairman, had written to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the Congress recommending the formation of a collegium to select the Election Commission members, comprising the Prime Minister as chairperson and the Chief Justice of India, the Law Minister and the Leaders of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha as members.

“The present system whereby members to the Election Commission are appointed by the President, solely on the advice of the Prime Minister, does not evoke confidence among the people. Keeping these important decisions as the exclusive preserve of the ruling party render the selection process vulnerable to manipulation and partisanship,” the BJP leader wrote, adding that it was time to amend the process.

Advani’s letter was in reference was to the appointments of both the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

In a letter to Singh, Advani pointed out that the CEC was a constitutional post. He said, “There is a rapidly growing opinion in the country which holds that appointments to Constitutional bodies such the Election Commission should be done on a bipartisan basis in order to remove any impression of bias or lack of transparency and fairness. The people of India wish to see that only persons with competence, integrity and an impeccable record of service get appointed to these crucial bodies,whose functioning greatly determines the quality of governance.”