{"id":16908,"date":"2023-03-04T13:19:02","date_gmt":"2023-03-04T07:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/?p=16908"},"modified":"2023-06-26T06:23:18","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T00:53:18","slug":"picking-the-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"current-affairs","link":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/current-affairs\/picking-the-watchdog","title":{"rendered":"Picking the Watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Context:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court directed in a landmark judgment that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners will be appointed by the President on the advice of a panel of the<\/span><b> Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the Lok Sabha or the<\/span><b> leader of the single largest party in Opposition<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>Chief Justice of India (CJI).<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Present Process of Appointment:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Article 324 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">says the President should appoint the CEC and Commissioners, subject to any law made in that behalf by Parliament.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The convention now is that the<\/span><b> Prime Minister chooses a name<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from among a database of high ranking civil servants and advises the President to make the appointment.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Basis of the Verdict:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a constitutional body vested with plenary powers of superintendence, direction and control over elections, <\/span><b>the ECI is a vital component of the republic that requires functional freedom and constitutional protection<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to ensure free and fair elections.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Constitution Bench has pointed out that the<\/span><b> original intent of the Constitution makers <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was that the manner of appointment should be laid down in a parliamentary law.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Justice K.M. Joseph, who has authored the main verdict, <\/span><b>has based the Court\u2019s decision on \u201cthe inertia\u201d of the legislature and the perceived vacuum in the absence of a law.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There should be no room for an appointing authority to expect reciprocity or loyalty.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Issues that may still appear:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, a relevant question is <\/span><b>whether the presence of the CJI<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the selection panel is the <\/span><b>only way in which an institution\u2019s independence can be preserved.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is <\/span><b>no clear proof that the independence of the CBI director<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, who is appointed by a panel that includes the CJI, or his nominee, has been <\/span><b>preserved or enhanced<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further, the <\/span><b>CJI\u2019s presence may give pre\u00ademptive legitimacy to all appointments and effect objective judicial scrutiny of any error<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or infirmity in the process.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Significance:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Supreme Court verdict taking away the power to appoint members of the Election Commission of India (ECI) from the sole domain of the executive is a major boost to the independence of the election watchdog.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b><i>News Source: <\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/editorial\/choosing-the-watchdog-the-hindu-editorial-on-election-commissioners-appointment\/article66576743.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b><i>The Hindu<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context:\u00a0\u00a0 A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court directed in a landmark judgment that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners will be appointed by the President on the advice of a panel of the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha or the leader of the single largest party&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/current-affairs\/picking-the-watchdog\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Picking the Watchdog<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[1250,1273],"paper-wise":[],"subject":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/current-affairs\/16908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/current-affairs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/current-affairs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/current-affairs\/16908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16908"},{"taxonomy":"paper-wise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/paper-wise?post=16908"},{"taxonomy":"subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/subject?post=16908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}