SC dismisses PIL challenging appointment of election commissioner Arun Goel
What's the story
The Supreme Court (SC) dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on Friday challenging the appointment of Election Commissioner Arun Goel. The country's top court dismissed the PIL filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) as the same appointment had been reviewed by a Constitution bench, which declined to pass any orders disturbing the appointment.
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Know about PIL against Goel's appointment
The ADR reportedly challenged the appointment of Goel, claiming that it was done arbitrarily and violated the institutional independence and integrity of the Election Commission Of India (ECI). Furthermore, the plea also claimed that the ECI and central government, through their "omissions and commission" acts, took part in an orchestrated "selection procedure" for their own benefits.
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Arguments from both sides
Appearing for the central government, Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta opposed the PIL and argued that the Constitution bench could have quashed the appointment, but it didn't. On the other hand, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for ADR, argued that Goel's appointment was not quashed as the latter was not a party to the earlier proceedings, according to the news agency ANI.
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What SC bench said while dismissing PIL
While dismissing the PIL, an SC bench of Justices SVN Bhatti and Sanjiv Khanna said, "It won't be appropriate...to interfere now. The Constitution bench has already gone into it and still chose not to pass that order." "This has already been examined. A second round won't be the correct way to go about it," the Hindustan Times quoted the bench as saying.
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Details on previous judgment
In its March judgment, a constitutional bench of five judges ruled that the chief election commissioner and election commissioners will subsequently be chosen by a panel comprising the Chief Justice of India, the Prime Minister, and the Leader of the Opposition until Parliament passes a law regarding it. Notably, the constitution bench didn't interfere with Goel's appointment in spite of observations.