New Election Commissioners appointed

March 15, 2024

The government notified the appointment of ex-bureaucrats Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu as election commissioners.
Prior to the new appointments, Election Commission of India only had Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar.
Mr Sandhu and Mr Kumar are retired IAS officers of the 1988 batch. While Mr Sandhu is from the Uttarakhand cadre of IAS, Mr Kumar is from the Kerala cadre.
Process
- A search committee led by the Law Minister prepares a shortlist.
- Then, a selection panel led by the Prime Minister and comprising the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and a Union Minister makes the final choice.
Issues
- The Supreme Court had in March last year ruled that the panel must have the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha.
- But the Centre thereafter brought a law to replace the Chief Justice by a Union Minister.