NEW DELHI: At a time when the government of West Bengal is accusing the State Electoral Commission (EC) of bias, the Supreme Court said on Friday that the independence of the electoral commissions is inviolable under the constitution and that no government can place an additional burden on the state Electoral commission for a bureaucrat serving under the government.
A bank headed by Justice RF Nariman stabbed the Goa government for placing additional charges on the Justice Minister by the state-owned EC, which was also being whipped for attempting to contact the HC in a case involving the referred to reserving SC / OBC and women seats in elections “From now on, any state electoral commission will be headed by independent persons who do not hold office under the state government. If they hold such office, they must resign before taking office take.”
The bank said it was appalled to discover that the EC legal secretary tried to beat the hearing of petitions against seat reservation in Zilla Panchayat elections and “mocked the constitutional mandate for EC independence”.
The Goa Zilla Panchayat elections were due to take place last February. However, since the case is traveling from HC to SC, it will now take place before April 30, the bank ordered.
The bank identified the legal secretary’s attempts to contact the HC by issuing a notification at the speed of light as the most disruptive feature of the case. This prompted the Supervisory Committee to use its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to issue an order for all of India precluding the appointment (or additional fee) of a serving bureaucrat as a state EC.
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