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Dr. Jaya Thakur vs Union of India

Not available · 2024 INSC 246Decided 22 Mar 2024
Not available
Justice Sanjiv Khanna · Justice Dipankar Datta

Background

Several writ petitions challenged the newly enacted Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service, and Term of Office) Act, 2023, particularly Section 7(1), which replaced the Chief Justice of India with a Union Cabinet Minister on the Selection Committee for choosing the Election Commissioners. Petitioners argued this diluted the Supreme Court's earlier Constitution Bench ruling in Anoop Baranwal v. Union of India and that the selection of two new Election Commissioners on 14.03.2024 was rushed and procedurally unfair, since the Leader of Opposition was given the shortlist of candidates only minutes before the selection meeting.

Decision Breakdown

The Court declined to stay the appointments of the two Election Commissioners, holding that courts must exercise judicial restraint before staying a statute unless it is ex facie unconstitutional, and that halting the appointments so close to the 2024 Lok Sabha general elections would cause administrative chaos. The Court noted it could not, through an interim order, direct that the CJI be added back to the Selection Committee, since that would amount to rewriting the statute rather than adjudicating it. However, the Court expressed serious concern about the selection procedure, observing that for two vacancies, ten candidates (not just six) should have been shortlisted, and that fuller particulars should have been circulated to all Selection Committee members in advance. All stay and intervention applications were dismissed, with the observations expressly noted as tentative pending final adjudication of the constitutional challenge.

Lesson Learnt

Courts are reluctant to stay the operation of a validly enacted law at the interim stage unless it is patently unconstitutional; procedural fairness concerns about a selection process do not automatically justify halting appointments to constitutional posts, especially when elections are imminent.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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