On Poll Body Appointments, Ex-Chief Backs Supreme Court Comments

The court had flagged Article 324 of Constitution that talks about appointment of election commissioners, but does not provide procedure

Former Union law minister M Veerappa Moily and ex-chief election commissioner SY Quraishi on Wednesday supported a consultative mechanism to appoint the CEC and election commissioners, while another former head of the poll panel pushed for a body to appoint judges in the Supreme Court and the high courts.

On Tuesday, a constitution bench of the Supreme Court had questioned the absence of a law to appoint the CEC and ECs. The top court had termed the exploitation of the "silence of the Constitution" and the absence of a law governing the appointments of ECs and CECs a "disturbing trend".

The five-judge bench, headed by Justice K M Joseph, said its endeavour is to put a system in place so that the "best man" is selected as the CEC.

It told Attorney General R Venkataramani, who appeared in the matter on behalf of the Centre, "What is important is that we put a fairly good procedure so that apart from competence, someone of strong character is appointed as the CEC."