New Delhi:
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.
“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.
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.
“The first issue I wish to flag today is that the common man today under our Constitution, and at, if I may say so, the heart of our Constitution, the heart of our democracy, which is the right to vote, is at great peril.
“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.
He referred to the Supreme Court’s 2023 judgment in the Anoop Baranwal case, in which the court noted that Parliament had not made a law under Article 324 of the Constitution for the appointment of the CEC and other Election Commissioners.
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.
“For pro tem, until Parliament makes a law, we will have these three people who will select somebody independent and impartial,” Nariman said.
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.
“So that again you are back to square one,” Nariman said.
He said when the matter came up before the Supreme Court, two judges had differed on the issue.
“With the matter now before a larger bench, probably of five judges, to decide whether the law was valid. But meanwhile, these appointments continue only in the hands of the government of the day,” Nariman added.
He also referred to a controversy surrounding the revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal, claiming that 90 lakh voters were disenfranchised and that around 22 lakh of them have filed appeals.
“Of these 22 lakh voters, some one lakh voter appeals were decided, 93 per cent in favour of the voter. Can you imagine this was a completely illegal knocking out of the common man, of the citizen of India, in order that a government obtains what it wants,” Nariman said.
He also referred to a report by The Indian Express, saying the two Election Commissioners serving alongside the CEC had raised objections to decisions on 14 occasions.
“And somehow or the other, they didn’t press their right under the new Act, section 18, to say that look, between the three of us, it’s the majority vote that counts,” he said.
The former SC judge said the two commissioners were also appointed by the government of the day, raising questions about the independence of the poll panel.
Referring to what he described as a recent “patch-up” between the three commissioners, Justice Nariman (retd) said a common statement had been issued acknowledging that some of the objections raised earlier appeared to be correct and that changes, including a return to the old Form 6, would be made.
He said the appointment mechanism should ensure that the Election Commissioners were independent and impartial.
“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.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
