{"id":36789,"date":"2023-08-10T02:40:17","date_gmt":"2023-08-09T21:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=36789"},"modified":"2025-04-22T01:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T20:08:11","slug":"bill-moved-to-remove-cji-from-panel-to-select-election-commissioners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/bill-moved-to-remove-cji-from-panel-to-select-election-commissioners\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill moved to remove CJI from panel to select Election Commissioners"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Election Commission of India:<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Appointment and Tenure of Commissioners:<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Composition of Election Commission:<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Supreme Court on appointment of Election Commissioners<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary: Bill moved to remove CJI from panel to select Election Commissioners<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Key highlights of the bill<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023, has been introduced by the government in the Rajya Sabha.<\/li>\n<li>The Bill seeks to remove the Chief Justice of India (CJI) from a panel to select the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners.\n<ul>\n<li>Earlier, in March 2023, the Supreme Court had ruled that the selection of Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners be done by a three-member committee.<\/li>\n<li>The committee should comprise the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Election Commission of India:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Election Commission is a permanent and independent body.<\/li>\n<li>By <strong>Article 324<\/strong> of the Constitution of India, it is vested with the power of conducting elections to \u2013\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Parliament<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>State Legislatures<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Office of President and Vice-President of India<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Appointment and Tenure of Commissioners:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Constitution does not lay down a specific legislative process for the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Article 324(2)<\/strong> says appointment of CEC and other ECs shall be subject to provisions of any law made by the Parliament.<\/li>\n<li>However, no such law has been framed so far.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The <i><strong>President makes the appointment on the advice of the Union Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>They have <strong>tenure of six years, or up to the age of 65 years<\/strong>, whichever is earlier.<\/li>\n<li>They enjoy the same status and receive salary and perks as available to Judges of the Supreme Court of India.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The CEC can be removed from office except in same manner and on the same grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court.<\/li>\n<li>The Constitution has <i><strong>not debarred the retiring Election Commissioners from any further appointment by the Government<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Composition of Election Commission:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Since the inceptions and till 15<sup>th<\/sup> October 1989, the EC functioned as a single member body consisting of the CEC.<\/li>\n<li>On 16<sup>th<\/sup> October 1989, the <i><strong><u>President appointed two more commissioners to cope with the increased work of the EC, on account of lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 years<\/u><\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>In case of difference of opinion amongst the CEC and\/or two other election commissioners, <i><strong>the matter is decided by the Commission by majority<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Supreme Court on Appointment of Election Commissioners<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court was hearing a bunch of petitions seeking a selection process similar to what is followed in the case of the Director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).\n<ul>\n<li>The Director of CBI is selected by a committee which consists of Prime Minister, Leader of the Single Largest Opposition Party and the Chief Justice of India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In March 2023, the Court has unanimously disapproved of the present system of the Centre appointing members of the poll watchdog.<\/li>\n<li>Pointing to <strong>Article 324(2) of the Constitution<\/strong>, the Court has called upon Parliament to make a law regarding the criteria for selection, conditions for service and tenure of the CEC and ECs.<\/li>\n<li>Until then, the apex court formed a panel of Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India and the leader of opposition to make these appointments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary<\/strong>: <strong>Bill moved to remove CJI from panel to select Election Commissioners<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023, was introduced by Law Minister in the Rajya Sabha.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Key highlights of the bill<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Removed CJI from the panel<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The bill seeks to replace the Chief Justice of India with a Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister in the committee for selection of the CECs and ECs.<\/li>\n<li>It also makes the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha a member of the selection committee.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Criteria<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The bill says the ECI will consist of a CEC and other ECs from among people:\n<ul>\n<li>who hold or have held the post equivalent to Secretary to the Government of India; and\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>shall be persons of integrity, who have knowledge of and experience in management and conduct of elections.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Process<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>First, a <strong>Search Committee<\/strong>, <u>headed by the Cabinet Secretary and including two members not below the rank of Secretary<\/u>, having knowledge and experience in matters relating to elections, <strong>shall prepare a panel of five persons<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>This will then be sent to the <strong>Selection Committee<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>The selection committee will be chaired by the PM and will include the Leader of Opposition or leader of the single largest Opposition party in Lok Sabha and a Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The Selection Committee <u>may consider any other person apart from those included in the Search Committee\u2019s panel<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Terms &amp; tenure<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The terms of the CEC and ECs <strong>remain unchanged<\/strong>, at six years or until they reach the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The Bill says the salary of the CEC and ECs would be equivalent to the Cabinet Secretary.\n<ul>\n<li>As of now their salary as per the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991, is equated with a Supreme Court judge.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The amount, however, is the same.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Repeals the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The bill repeals the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991.\n<ul>\n<li>Business of the ECI was guided through this act.<\/li>\n<li>The Bill says that the business of the EC should, as far as possible, be transacted unanimously and <u>if there is a difference of opinion, the majority\u2019s opinion will prevail<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) When was the voting age reduced from 21 to 18?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Through the 61<sup>st<\/sup> Constitutional Amendment Act, voting age was reduced from 21 to 18 in 1988.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)<\/strong> <strong>Which elections are managed by the Election Commission of India?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>By Article 324 of the Constitution of India, it is vested with the power of conducting elections to \u2013 Parliament, State Legislatures, Office of President and Vice-President of India.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/bill-moved-to-remove-cji-from-panel-to-select-election-commissioners\/article67180873.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Bill moved to remove CJI from panel to select Election Commissioners<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/political-pulse\/parliament-law-ministry-committe-eci-member-selection-8885520\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian Express<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article 324 of the Indian Constitution provides for the Election Commission of India. Learn about the bill to remove CJI from the panel to appoint election commissioners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":36790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}