New Delhi:
Two election commissioners are likely to be appointed by March 15 to fill the vacancies created by the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey and the surprise resignation of Arun Goel, sources said on Sunday.
Days before the poll panel is expected to announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections, Goel resigned on Friday morning. His resignation was accepted by President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday and the Ministry of Justice issued a notice to announce this.
This leaves Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar as the sole member of the poll authority.
Pandey had resigned from office on February 14 when he reached the age of 65.
A search committee headed by Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, comprising the Home Secretary and the Secretary of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), will first prepare two separate panels with five names each for the two posts.
Later, a selection committee headed by the Prime Minister and comprising Union Minister and Congress Party leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will nominate two persons for appointment as Election Commissioners.
The election commissioners are appointed by the president.
Sources said the selection committee could meet on March 13 or 14 depending on the convenience of the members and the appointments are likely to be made by March 15.
Before a new law on the appointment of CEC and ECs came into force recently, the election commissioners were appointed by the President on the recommendation of the government, and as per custom, the eldest was appointed CEC.
Clause 2 of Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the Electoral Commission shall consist of the Chief Electoral Commissioner and such number of other Electoral Commissioners, if any, as the President may from time to time determine.
Responding to questions about the reasons behind Goel's resignation, the sources said he may have resigned due to personal reasons.
They also rejected the suggestion that there were disagreements between Goel and Kumar, saying records of internal communications, minutes and decisions show that Goel had not registered any dissent.
When seasoned bureaucrats brainstorm a topic, differences in opinion and perception are bound to arise. These cannot be described as differences, she added.
Goel, who submitted his resignation on Friday morning, was not present at the crucial meeting between the European Commission, the top ministry of home affairs and railway officials to strengthen the deployment and movement of central forces across India for election duties.
Goel was an IAS officer of the Punjab cadre in 1985. He had joined the Election Commission in November 2022. His term would expire on December 5, 2027, and he would have become Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) after incumbent Rajiv Kumar retired in February next year.
Ashok Lavasa had resigned as election commissioner in August 2020. He had made dissenting comments on several decisions on model code violations taken by the European Commission in the last Lok Sabha polls.
Originally the committee only had a CEC. It currently consists of the CEC and two election commissioners.
Two additional commissioners were first appointed on October 16, 1989, but they had a very short term of office until January 1, 1990. Later, on October 1, 1993, two additional election commissioners were appointed.
The concept of a multi-member EC has been in force since then, with the decision being taken by majority vote.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)