Today, the Supreme Court of India held that the Members of the Election Commission of India should be appointed on the advice of the committee comprising the Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India and also the leaders of the Opposition Party.

 The bench was headed by Justice KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and CT Ravikumar. They mentioned that this would be the setup until the Central government comes up with a law on appointments.

 The Court rendered its decision on a batch of pleas challenging the current system of appointing members of the ECI on the ground that the executive enjoys the power to make appointments in violation of Article 324(2) of the Constitution of India.

 The provision states that –

"The Election Commission shall consist of the Chief Election Commissioner and such number of other Election Commissioners if any, as the President may from time to time fix and the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners shall, subject to the provisions of any law made in that behalf by Parliament is made by the President."

 The Court observed that there is a huge role in money power and criminalization of politics and that a large section of the media has abdicated its role and become partisan. During the course of the hearing, Justice Rastogi added that the removal of the Chief Election Commissioner should be done like grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court.

He also mentioned that the removal of election commissioners would be made only on the recommendation of the Chief Election Commissioner. He added, -

“It was desirable that grounds of removal of other election commissioners shall be same as the Chief”

Last year on November 24, 2022, the Supreme Court reserved its verdict.