SC questions govt on method to pick CECs

A Constitution bench in the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Union government if it could explain the method followed, or yardsticks adopted, in picking the chief election commissioner (CEC) and the election commissioners (ECS), and termed it "disturbing" that India has not had a woman CEC in 75 years of its Independence, suggesting that gender diversity in the appointment in the Election Commission of India is as important as having competent and independent people to head the poll body.

- Utkarsh Anand

With the government silent on the method, the bench remarked: "It looks like there is no mechanism and you follow your own procedure. Is it not defeating the wishes of the framers of the Constitution when you say that there is no vacuum while the Constitution lays down that such appointments have to be subject to the provisions of the law to be made by Parliament?" 

The bench's remarks are significant as they come amid criticism by the government of the apex court's own model of selecting judges for constitutional courts. Last week, Union law minister Kiren Rijiju commented that the Supreme Court collegium appoints people who are known to the judges and appear before them. At different occasions in the last one month, Rijiju has termed the collegium system "opaque", and described the Indian selection system as the only one where judges appoint judges.

Later in the proceedings, the bench, which was hearing a clutch of petitions demanding an independent selection panel to appoint CEC and other ECs, lamented that judges are criticised for favouring candidates known to them when they make selections through the collegium system.