The right to vote, which is at the heart of the Constitution and democracy, is at “great peril”, former Supreme Court judge Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman said, expressing serious concerns over the Election Commission’s functioning amid disenfranchisement of voters during the SIR exercise.
His remarks came amid discussions on the process of appointing the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other Election Commissioners, and controversies over the poll panel’s functioning. “I hope that the apex court, an institution to which I once belonged, steps in immediately and rectifies these things. You cannot have an Election Commission which functions or malfunctions like this,” he said while addressing an event at Rajkumar College in Rajkot on October 4. However, Parliament enacted a law in 2023 that replaced this arrangement with a selection panel comprising the Prime Minister, a Union minister nominated by him and the Leader of the Opposition, he said.
“You cannot have an Election Commission which functions or malfunctions like this,” he said, calling for the Supreme Court’s intervention to rectify the “disturbing developments” concerning the poll panel. He said the court had suggested a selection mechanism similar to that for the CBI director, involving a collegium comprising the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India. “And the sooner the Constitution bench decides that you have to have somebody like a Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition coupled with the Chief Justice or his nominee, who then picks up the best name in order to see that votes actually translate into what they’re supposed to translate into, happen, the sooner that happens the better,” he added.
