GUWAHATI: Former bureaucrats Sukhbir Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar have been appointed as the new Election Commissioners by the Centre.
After the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey in February and Arun Goel's resignation last week, the committee convened a meeting to fill the two vacant EC positions.
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However, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who represents the opposition in the panel, voiced dissent and raised concerns about the selection process, alleging that the shortlisted candidates' names were not provided to him in advance.
Speaking to the media after the meeting concluded, Chowdhury said that the panel considered six names for the appointment of two election commissioners, ultimately finalising Sukhbir Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar by a majority vote.
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He highlighted the absence of the Chief Justice of India in the selection panel and questioned the process of shortlisting six names from over 200 candidates, as overseen by the search committee headed by the law minister. The shortlisted candidates included Utpal Kumar Singh, Pradeep Kumar Tripathi, Gyanesh Kumar, Indevar Pandey, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, and Sudhir Kumar Gangadhar Rahate, all former bureaucrats.
The Supreme Court had earlier agreed to hear petitions challenging the appointment procedure of Election Commissioners under the new Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023 (Act) on March 15.
The petitions, filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Dr Jaya Thakur (General Secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Mahila Congress Committee), were mentioned before a Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh, and Bela M Trivedi.