The Centre recently opposed pleas seeking a collegium-like system for the selection of CECs.
The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that since 2004, no Chief Election Commissioner has completed a six-year tenure. A Constitution bench pointed out that there were six CECs during the ten-year rule of the UPA and eight in the eight years of the NDA.
Here are 5 big quotes from the top court:
The government is giving such a truncated tenure to the ECs and CECs that they are doing its bidding.
There have been numerous CECs and T N Seshan happens once in a while. We do not want anyone to bulldoze him. Enormous power has been vested on the fragile shoulder of three men (CEC and two election commissioners). We have to find the best man for the post of CEC.
The situation on the ground is alarming. We know that there will be opposition from the ruling party to not allow us to go past the present system.
What is important is that we put a fairly good procedure so that apart from competence, someone of strong character is appointed as the CEC.
Democracy is a basic structure of the Constitution. There is no debate about that. We also cannot tell Parliament to do something and we will not do that. We just want to do something to the issue that has been raised since 1990.
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