The selection committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet on Thursday afternoon to finalize the appointment of election commissioners. Later, on the basis of the recommendation of the selection committee, President Draupadi Murmu will appoint two members in the Election Commission (ECI).
Earlier, the search committee headed by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal met on Wednesday evening to prepare a list of five candidates to fill the two posts of election commissioners.
The law also empowers the three-member selection committee to appoint a person who has not been selected by the search committee. On February 14, Anup Chandra Pandey retired from the post of Election Commissioner. After this, Arun Goyal also resigned from the post of Election Commissioner. The notification of his resignation was issued on March 9. Since then these two posts in the commission are vacant.
Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey had retired in February this year. At the same time, last week another Election Commissioner Arun Goyal had resigned from the post. Both the posts of Election Commissioners are vacant in this three-member commission.
If sources are to be believed, Goyal had differences with the Chief Election Commissioner on some issues. It is a different matter that usually there are so many differences between senior officers, but on March 6 and 7, the atmosphere in the Commission was felt to be a little different.
Once the appointments are notified, these will be the first appointments to be made under the new law. The law also gives the three-member selection committee the power to appoint a person who has not been shortlisted by the search committee.
Before the recent enactment of the new law on appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners, the Election Commissioners were appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Government and as per tradition, the most senior was appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner.
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