Supreme Court order on appointments of Election Commissioners | Kiren Rijiju invokes constitutional 'Lakshman Rekha'

Kiren Rijiju was responding to a question on a Supreme Court Bench directing the government to set up a panel comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief justice of India and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha to select the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners till a law is in place for the same.

Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on March 18 invoked the constitutional "Lakshman Rekha" guiding different institutions, including the executive and the judiciary, and wondered that if judges become part of administrative appointments, who would carry out judicial work.

Mr. Rijiju was responding to a question on a Supreme Court Bench directing the government to set up a panel comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief justice of India and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha to select the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners till a law is in place for the same.

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"The appointment of Election Commissioners is prescribed in the Constitution. Parliament has to enact a law. Accordingly, the appointment has to be done. I agree that there is no enactment for that in Parliament, there is a vacuum," the Minister said at the India Today Conclave.

Mr. Rijiju said he is not criticising the apex court judgment or talking about its "repercussions" or what the government is going to do on the issue.

"... But what I am saying is that if the CJI or judges of India sit on every important appointment, who will carry forward the judiciary's work? There are so many administrative matters in the country. So we have to see that judges are primarily there to deliver judicial work. They are there to deliver judicial orders by giving justice to people," he said.