The Election Commission: composition, appointment and independence

Detail

1. Constitutional position of the ECI

• Election Commission of India (ECI) is the body the Constitution sets up to hold national and state elections. It comes from Article 324.
• It is a permanent constitutional body. "Permanent" means it works all the time, not only during elections. "Constitutional" means the Constitution itself creates it, not an ordinary law.
• It was set up on 25 January 1950, the day before the Constitution came into force.

• Sukumar Sen was the first Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). He ran the first general election (1951-52), which the Congress won easily at a time when it dominated politics (the one-party dominance phase).

• What Art. 324(1) gives the ECI. It has "superintendence, direction and control", meaning overall charge, of:

• preparing the electoral rolls (the official voters' lists);
• elections to Parliament and the state legislatures;

• elections to the offices of the President and the Vice-President.

• NCERT Class 11 says the ECI has a "decisive role in virtually everything" linked to elections. Class 9 describes it as an autonomous, permanent body and links it to Arts. 324-329, the Constitution's part on elections.

• Who runs local body polls. The ECI does not run panchayat or municipal elections.
• State Election Commissions (SECs) run them: Art. 243K for panchayats (added by the 73rd Amendment, 1992) and Art. 243ZA for municipalities (added by the 74th Amendment, 1992).
• SECs are independent of the ECI. Class 8's Fig. 5.11 and its phrase that SECs "work in consultation with the ECI" make this unclear. Legally, an SEC does not report to the ECI.

2. Structure: from a single-member to a multi-member body

• Art. 324(2): the ECI has the CEC and "such number of other Election Commissioners (ECs) … as the President may from time to time fix". The President decides how many ECs there are.
• Art. 324(3): when there are other ECs, the CEC acts as Chairman of the Commission.
• Multi-member Election Commission means an ECI with more than one member: the CEC plus ECs. Its history:

Period	Structure
1950 – Oct 1989	Single-member (only the CEC)
Oct 1989	Two ECs appointed; the ECI becomes multi-member
Jan 1990	The two EC posts are abolished; back to single-member
Oct 1993 – present	Multi-member again (CEC + 2 ECs)

• T.N. Seshan v. Union of India (1995) (reported as (1995) 4 SCC 611 [5]).
• The clash: CEC T.N. Seshan resisted the ECs appointed in 1993. He claimed to be above them.

• What the Court held:

  • the CEC and ECs have an equal say;
  • differences are settled by majority vote;
  • the CEC is only "first among equals", meaning he chairs the body but does not outrank the other members.

• Why a multi-member body helps. Class 11 records a broad agreement that it shares power and increases accountability. In March 2024 the Supreme Court said two more ECs bring "a balance and check". It called the idea of plurality (more than one member) in Art. 324, approved in T.N. Seshan, "necessary and desirable" [5].

3. Appointment: how the method has changed

(a) The old practice (NCERT version)

• Art. 324(2) says the President appoints the CEC and ECs, "subject to the provisions of any law made by Parliament" [5].
• Until 2023 Parliament had passed no such law. So the President appointed them on the advice of the Council of Ministers (in practice, the Prime Minister's choice). (NCERT: appointed on the advice of the Council of Ministers.)
• Class 11 records reform ideas to involve the Leader of Opposition (LoP) and the Chief Justice of India (CJI) in the choice:
• Dinesh Goswami Committee (1990);
• Law Commission, 255th Report (2015).

(b) Anoop Baranwal v. Union of India (2023)

• This was a Constitution Bench decision (a bench of five or more judges). It was given on 2 March 2023 and is reported as (2023) 6 SCC 161 [5].
• Holding: Art. 324(2) was meant to stop the executive (the government of the day) having sole control over appointments [5].
• The Court found a "legislative vacuum", meaning Parliament had not made the law that Art. 324(2) expects. As a pro-tem (temporary) measure, it ordered that the President appoint on the advice of a panel of:
• the PM,
• the LoP in the Lok Sabha (or the leader of the largest opposition party),

• the CJI.

• This rule was to last only until Parliament made a law [5].

(c) The CEC and Other ECs (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023

• How it was passed:
• introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 10 August 2023;
• passed by the Rajya Sabha on 12 December 2023 and by the Lok Sabha on 21 December 2023 [2];

• in force from 2 January 2024 [5].

• It replaced the system under the 1991 Act (the earlier law on ECs' service conditions) [2].

• Appointment happens in four steps: 1. The Search Committee shortlists. It is headed by the Minister of Law and Justice and has two other members of at least Secretary rank to the Government of India. It prepares a panel of five names (s.6) [3][4]. 2. The Selection Committee recommends a name. Its members are the PM (Chairperson), the LoP in the Lok Sabha, and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the PM (s.7(1)) [4]. If no LoP is recognised, the leader of the single largest opposition party counts as the LoP [5]. 3. The Selection Committee may consider names outside the panel (s.8). 4. The President appoints on the Selection Committee's recommendation [2].

• A vacancy on the Selection Committee does not make an appointment invalid (s.7(2)).

• The CJI is dropped from the panel. This is the central change from Anoop Baranwal. With a Cabinet Minister in the CJI's place, the government side holds 2 of 3 votes.

(d) What the Bill changed between introduction and passage (December 2023 amendments)

Feature	Bill as introduced (Aug 2023)	Act as passed (Dec 2023)
Head of Search Committee	Cabinet Secretary [2]	Law Minister + 2 Secretaries [3]
Salary	Equal to Cabinet Secretary [2]	Equal to a Supreme Court judge [3][4]
Removal	—	Restates the Constitution: CEC removed like an SC judge; ECs only on the CEC's recommendation [3]
Legal protection	None	New s.15A: no civil or criminal case against a serving or former CEC/EC for acts done in official duty [3]

• An opposition amendment to put the CJI in place of the Cabinet Minister was moved. Another sought to stop the Selection Committee from looking outside the panel. Neither made it into the Act [3].

(e) Eligibility and service conditions under the 2023 Act

• Eligibility: a person who holds, or has held, a post equal to Secretary to the Government of India, with expertise in managing elections [2][4].
• Term: six years or until age 65, whichever comes first. No re-appointment is allowed [2].
• Salary: equal to a Supreme Court judge's [4].
• Other conditions (travel allowance, medical facilities and so on) are set by rules made by the President [3][4].
• Immunity (protection from court cases) for official acts: s.15A [3].

(f) First appointments under the Act (March 2024)

• How the two vacancies arose:
• EC Anup Chandra Pandey retired on 14 February 2024;

• EC Arun Goel resigned on 9 March 2024 [5].

• The committees used:

• Search Committee: formed 1 February 2024. It was chaired by the Minister of State, Law and Justice, with the Home Secretary and the Secretary, DoPT (Department of Personnel and Training) [5];

• Selection Committee: PM, Home Minister and LoP [5].

• What happened on 14 March 2024:

• the Search Committee gave a panel of six names for the two posts;
• the Selection Committee recommended Gyanesh Kumar and Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu;

• the President approved the same day [5].

• Both were 1988-batch IAS officers, from the Kerala and Uttarakhand cadres. They took charge on 15 March 2024 [6].

• Gyanesh Kumar became CEC in February 2025. As CEC, he chairs the Council of Member States of International IDEA (an international body that supports democracy) for 2026 [7].

4. Court challenge to the 2023 Act

• Jaya Thakur v. Union of India, interim order of 22 March 2024 (2024 INSC 246; Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta) [5].
• The challenge: s.7(1) dilutes Anoop Baranwal by replacing the CJI with a Cabinet Minister [5].
• Stay refused. A stay is a court order pausing a law. The Court said courts rarely pause a law before ruling on whether it is valid. A stay would also disturb the 18th Lok Sabha general election (19 April – 1 June 2024) and cause "chaos" [5].
• The Court's view of Anoop Baranwal: that panel was only a stop-gap. The Court cannot tell Parliament how to write the law. But it can strike down a law that violates Fundamental Rights (judicial review) [5].

• The Court's concern about the process: the LoP got the shortlist only minutes before the meeting. The Court also said that s.6's "five names" seems to mean ten names for two posts, not six [5].

• Order of 23 September 2026:

• a two-judge bench split on whether a Constitution Bench must hear the case;
• it sent the papers to the CJI to set up a bench to decide whether ss.6-8 of the Act are valid;
• the final decision is still pending.

5. Security of tenure (how the members are protected)

• Security of tenure means a member cannot be removed easily or for political reasons. This lets them act without fear.
• CEC — Art. 324(5), first proviso:
• the CEC can be removed only "in like manner and on the like grounds" as a Supreme Court judge, meaning by the same process and for the same reasons;

• the CEC's conditions of service cannot be changed to his or her disadvantage after appointment.

• Removal of the CEC, step by step (same as for an SC judge under Art. 124(4)):

Step	What happens	Majority / requirement
1	A motion to remove is moved in either House	Grounds must be proved misbehaviour or incapacity
2	The motion is passed in the Lok Sabha	Special majority
3	The motion is passed in the Rajya Sabha	Special majority
4	An address goes to the President in the same session	—
5	The President orders removal	—

• Special majority (Class 11 box) has two parts. Both must be met:
• two-thirds of members present and voting, and

• more than half of the total membership of the House.

• ECs — Art. 324(5), second proviso: an EC can be removed only on the CEC's recommendation. The 2023 Act repeats this [3]. (NCERT: "can be removed by the President", which is incomplete.)

• So an EC is protected from the government. But the EC is not protected from the CEC, and does not get the judge-like removal process.

6. Open issues and demands for reform

• Unequal protection. ECs lack the CEC's protection, even though T.N. Seshan (1995) made all three equal in decisions. The demand is for equal removal protection for ECs.
• Independent secretariat. The ECI depends on government staff. Art. 324(6) says the President or Governor provides staff when the ECI asks.
• Expenditure "charged" on the Consolidated Fund. Charged spending is not voted on by Parliament, as with SC judges' salaries. This would free the ECI's budget from government control.
• After retirement. No law stops a former CEC or EC from taking a government post or joining politics (Class 11, exercise 9). The 2023 Act bars re-appointment [2], but it does not stop other jobs after retirement.
• Who controls appointments. The debate between the Anoop Baranwal panel (with the CJI) and the 2023 Act's panel (dominated by the executive) is still open (see §4).
• Eighteen Lok Sabha elections have been held since 1951-52. The 18th was held 19 April – 1 June 2024 [5]. (NCERT: seventeen.)

Prelims Hooks

• Art. 324 gives the ECI "superintendence, direction and control" over elections to Parliament, state legislatures, President and Vice-President. It does not cover panchayats or municipalities, which belong to Arts. 243K / 243ZA.
• The ECI was set up on 25 January 1950. Sukumar Sen was the first CEC.
• The ECI had more than one member in Oct 1989, went back to one in Jan 1990, and has had more than one since Oct 1993. The President fixes the number of ECs (Art. 324(2)).
• T.N. Seshan v. UoI (1995): the CEC is "first among equals" and the ECI decides by majority.
• Anoop Baranwal (2 March 2023): temporary panel of PM + LoP + CJI until Parliament made a law [5].
• 2023 Act: the Search Committee is headed by the Law Minister. The Selection Committee is PM + LoP + a Cabinet Minister nominated by the PM. No CJI [3][4].
• 2023 Act: salary equals an SC judge's (the Bill as introduced said Cabinet Secretary). Term is 6 years / 65 years. No re-appointment [2][3].
• Trap: an EC is removed only on the CEC's recommendation. Only the CEC is removed like an SC judge, by special majority in both Houses.
• First appointments under the 2023 Act: Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, 14-15 March 2024 [5][6].

Mains Points

• Independence vs executive control. Anoop Baranwal tried to shield appointments from sole government control. The 2023 Act puts the government back in a 2:1 majority, adds a power to pick outside the shortlist (s.8), and allows shortlists given at short notice (criticised in the March 2024 order [5]). Balance this against the separation of powers: the Court itself said it cannot dictate how Parliament writes the law [5].
• Equal members, unequal protection. T.N. Seshan (1995) gave all members an equal vote. Yet ECs can be removed on the CEC's word alone. Reform options:
• equal removal protection for ECs;
• an independent secretariat;
• charged expenditure (not voted on by Parliament);
• a ban on jobs after retirement.

• Use Goswami (1990) and Law Commission 255th (2015) as the basis.

• Status and protection. Bringing salary back to an SC judge's level was a gain for the ECI's status [3]. But s.15A immunity (no court cases for official acts) [3] raises a question: does it protect independence, or does it weaken accountability?

• Federal angle. SECs are separate from the ECI. Their independence (Arts. 243K/243ZA) is often weaker in practice, so local democracy needs the same protections.