Stop 'status downgrade' of poll body members: Ex-CECs

NEW DELHI: Days before both Houses of Parliament discuss the Bill for appointment of chief election commissioner (CEC) and election commissioners, nine ex-CECs have made a joint appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to do away with the Bill’s provision seeking to “downgrade” the status of CEC and election commissioners from that on par with a Supreme Court judge to that of a Cabinet secretary.
In a letter sent to the Prime Minister on Saturday, ex-CEC’s J M Lyngdoh, T S Krishnamurthy, N Gopalaswami, S Y Quraishi, V S Sampath, H S Brahma, Syed Nasim Zaidi, O P Rawat and Sushil Chandra opined that the proposed “status downgrade” signals that the CEC and election commissioners are “as good as, and no better than, bureaucrats, thus adversely affecting the perception of their being independent of the bureaucracy”.
Sharing concerns as to how making the salary and service conditions of CEC and election commissioners same as the Cabinet secretary creates an anomaly vis a vis Article 325 of the Constitution that mandates removal of the CEC only by impeachment in a ‘like manner and on like grounds’ as applicable to an SC judge, the former EC heads submitted that “it is in line with this approach” that the law making the emolument of EC members similar to an apex court judge, was enacted in 1991.
“Bringing their status down to that of a Cabinet Secretary will be somewhat anomalous in light of that constitutional provision (Article 325),” wrote the ex-CECs. They also cautioned that it would adversely affect high national and international recognition given to ECI. “Elections in India have achieved high visibility internationally and the ECI and the commissioners are held in high esteem, not only because of well conducted elections acknowledged as free and fair, but also because of their status as that of SC judges which leads to the perception of ECI being independent of the government,” they stated.
The former poll panel chiefs drew the prime minister’s attention to Article 148 which accords an “exalted status” to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) similar to that enjoyed by EC under the existing arrangement.
“That exalted position will suffer grievous damage and therefore there is a case to continue the presently existing status as SC judges to the CEC and the ECs,” the ex-CECs submitted while hoping for a “favourable consideration” of their plea by the prime minister.
Ex-CEC Sunil Arora, who did not sign the joint letter to the PM, said such a communication is the domain of current CEC and/or election commissioner. On the other hand, while ex-CEC Sushil Chandra‘s name is there in the letter to the PM, he reached out to TOI on Monday to clarify that he had not signed or seen the letter, even though he was told about a move on part of ex-CECs to write to the PM on concerns regarding the status downgrade.
The CEC and other Election Commissioner’s Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha last month, provides for appointment of the three EC members by a panel comprising the prime minister, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and a Union minister. However, the proposed downgrade of CEC and election commissioner’s status from that of SC judge to Cabinet secretary is being seen by experts, opposition parties, and almost all ex-CECs as “an erosion in the EC’s “standing and authority”. While the government has clarified that it will not affect the CEC’s order in the ‘Table of Precedence’ or the salary of the three top EC functionaries, many complain that it will affect the perception of EC as an authoritative Constitutional body and not sit well with the unfettered powers and superintendence over conduct of polls, conferred on it by Article 324 of the Constitution.
The proposed status change, incidentally, shall not be applicable to the current CEC and election commissioners and the proposed downgrade will kick in only with the appointment of the next election commissioner. A vacancy will arise in EC in mid-February next year upon the completion in tenure of election commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey.