Should Civil Servants be appointed as State Election Commissioners?
Justice Nariman has recently said that bureaucrats should not be appointed a state election commissioners because they may not be neutral given that are employees of the government. Do you agree ?
My 2 cents.
Other alternatives do not look quite promising either.
1. Appointing Judicial officers may appear to be a godsend panache, but doesn't come with guaranteed political neutrality ( now we know). Plus, given the frail condition of our judiciary, we will do better than diverting the scarce human resources there, towards elections.
2. Appointing retired government officials is at best a band aid job. The controversy around Navin chawla, Ashok Lavasa etc show that one need not to be an active government servant to be political biased ( or at least perceived to be one).
Moreover, if looked from an administrative point of view, serving government officials may be in a better position to manage and conduct elections, logistics etc. How judiciary's intervention further botched up Assam's NRC ( for example) is an open secret.
Such questions, therefore, have no easy answers. We might be tempted to say NO, but without a constructive alternative it means nothing. As good as Chai pe charcha in Karol Bagh lanes😃
Write your comment…
