{"id":219485,"date":"2022-12-22T19:26:33","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T13:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=219485"},"modified":"2022-12-22T19:26:33","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T13:56:33","slug":"benchmarks-for-ecs-appointments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/benchmarks-for-ecs-appointments\/","title":{"rendered":"Benchmarks for ECs\u2019 appointments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/span><\/b>: The post is based on the article <\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/b>Benchmarks for ECs\u2019 appointments<\/span><\/b>\u201d <\/span><\/b>published in<\/span> The Hindu <\/span><\/b>on <\/span>22nd December 2022<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/span><\/b>GS2- Appointment to various constitutional post<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Relevance<\/span><\/b>: About the appointment of Election Commissioners<\/span><\/p>\n

News<\/span><\/b>: The article explains the issues of the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the true constitutional spirit that guides important offices like ECI?<\/span><\/b><\/h5>\n

Article 324<\/span><\/b> of the Constitution provides for the creation of the ECI. This brings to mind the larger issue of the working of the Constitution.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>B.R. Ambedkar<\/span><\/b> \u201cHowever good a <\/span>Constitution<\/span><\/b> may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it, happen to be a bad lot. However bad a <\/span>Constitution <\/span><\/b>may be, it may turn out to be good if those who are called to work it, happen to be a good lot. The <\/span>working of a Constitution<\/span><\/b> does not depend wholly upon the <\/span>nature of the Constitution<\/span><\/b>.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>Rajendra Prasad<\/span><\/b> \u201cWhatever the Constitution may or may not provide, the <\/span>welfare of the country<\/span><\/b> will depend upon the way in which the country is administered. The <\/span>Constitution<\/span><\/b>, like a machine, is a l<\/strong><\/span>ifeless thing<\/span><\/b>. It acquires life because of the men who control it. India needs today nothing more than a <\/span>set of honest men<\/span><\/b> who will have the interest of the country before them.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The above views reflect the true <\/span>constitutional spirit<\/span><\/b>. Constitutional makers are expected to follow this spirit while assigning duties for important <\/span>constitutional posts<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the weaknesses in the system of appointment of ECs?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

One major weakness in the system of appointments of the ECs proposed is that it perpetuates the<\/span> bureaucratisation of the ECI<\/span><\/b>. It is not even <\/span>mentioned in the Constitution<\/span><\/b> anywhere. Two visible manifestations of this are the elevation of ECs to Chief Election Commissioner and the tenures of ECs and CEC. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The elevation is a clear violation of the <\/span>principle of <\/span><\/b>primus inter pares (first among equals)<\/span><\/i><\/b>. <\/span><\/i>Monopolisation<\/span><\/b> of the positions of ECs and CEC by administrative services should be taken into consideration.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the way forward for the appointment of ECs?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

The government need to go outside the <\/span>existing frameworks<\/b> as <\/span>marginal improvements are not enough and b<\/span>old actions are needed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An <\/span>existing committee of Parliament<\/span><\/b> or a <\/span>new committee<\/span><\/b> formed for this purpose should a)<\/strong> Propose the <\/span>qualifications and requirements<\/span><\/b> for persons to be appointed as ECs\/CEC. These proposals and the selected candidates should be put to Parliament and should be approved by <\/span>two-thirds majority<\/span><\/b> of the members of Parliament present and voting, b) <\/strong><\/span>Entrusted with the task of<\/span> searching for and selecting<\/span><\/b> individuals proposed to be appointed as ECs\/CEC, c)<\/strong> <\/span>i<\/strong><\/span>nvite nominations and applications<\/span><\/b> of individuals appropriate for or interested in being appointed as ECs\/CEC, and d)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Once Parliament approves the committee recommendations, they should be <\/span>sent to the President<\/span><\/b> for approving the appointments. Once appointed, such persons should stay in their positions for <\/span>six years or the age of 75 years<\/span><\/b>, whichever is earlier. Persons above the age of 69 years should not be appointed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article \u201cBenchmarks for ECs\u2019 appointments\u201d published in The Hindu on 22nd December 2022.\u00a0 Syllabus: GS2- Appointment to various constitutional post\u00a0 Relevance: About the appointment of Election Commissioners News: The article explains the issues of the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners.\u00a0 What is the true… Continue reading Benchmarks for ECs\u2019 appointments<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-219485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704932056},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}