On EC selection, Adhir dissents: ‘Shortlisted names were shared 8-10 minutes before meeting’

A selection committee headed by the Prime Minister on Thursday picked retired IAS officers Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu as the new Election Commissioners, with Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Opposition member in the panel, recording his dissent and questioning the procedure followed.

Adhir claimed that the names of the officers shortlisted were not made available to him in advance. The long list included the names of 92 officers who retired as Secretary and Secretary equivalent in the Government of India, 93 names of officers serving as Secretary and Secretary equivalent officers in the Government of India, 15 officers who retired as Chief Secretaries of states and Union Territories in the last one year, 28 and 8 officers serving as chief secretaries in states and Union Territories respectively.

Chowdhury told The Indian Express that the government shared with him the names of six shortlisted candidates just “eight to 10 minutes” before the meeting started. The recently enacted Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act merely says, “A search committee headed by the Minister of Law and Justice and comprising two other members not below the rank of Secretary to the Government of India, shall prepare a panel of five persons for consideration of the Selection Committee, for appointment as the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners.”

“Eight to 10 minutes before the meeting started, the papers of the search committee were shared with me. I was given a short list of six names and Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal apprised the selection committee of the details of these six officers, the posts that they had held,