New Delhi: Two Newly Appointed Election Commissioner Takes Charge

NEW DELHI:  A day after being selected by a panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, retired IAS officers Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu assumed their roles as Election Commissioners on Friday morning.

A committee comprising the Prime Minister, Home Minister Amit Shah and the Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Andhir Ranjan Chowdhury, convened on Thursday to select two candidates for the cacant Election Commissioner posts.

Bu the end of the day, President Droupadi Murmu appointed the two individuals, issuing a notification under the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service, and Term of Office) Act, 2023.

The two appointments were the first to be carried out under the new Act.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar welcomed the two Election Commissioners on Friday, highlighting the importance of their appointment at a historic moment when the Election Commission of India is preparing to conduct the General Election 2024 in the world’s largest democracy, according to a tweet from the ECI spokesperson.

Gyanesh Kumar, a retired IAS officer of the Kerala cadre from the 1988 batch, stepped down as Cooperation Secretary on January 31. He had previously worked in the Ministry of Home Affairs during the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

Meanwhile, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, a retired IAS officer from Uttarakhand cadre of the 1988 batch, served as the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand. He was appointed as Secretary to the Lokpal for a one-year contract starting on February 3, this year.

The two Election Commissioner positions became vacant following the retirement of former Election Commissioner C Anup Chandra Pandey in February and the unexpected resignation of former EC Arun Goel on March 9.

Earlier, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking to prevent the Central government from appointing a new election commissioner under the recently enacted Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service, and Terms of Office) Act, 2023.

Following Arun Goel’s sudden resignation as election commissioner, reducing the three-member poll panel to just one member ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Jaya Thakur has filed the petition.

Thakur’s petition requests the Supreme Court to direct the center to follow the guidelines outlined in a previous Supreme Court judgment.

These guidelines specify that election commissioners should be appointed by a panel consisting of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India, and the Leader of the Opposition.

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