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Chief Election Commissioner of India

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Not to be confused with Election Commissioner of India.

Chief Election Commissioner of India
since 15 May 2022
Election Commission of India
TypeChief Election Commissioner
StatusHead of the Election Commission of India
NominatorUnion Council of Ministers
AppointerPresident of India
Term length6 years or up to 65 years of age
(whichever is prior)
Inaugural holderSukumar Sen
DeputyElection Commissioners of India
Deputy Election Commissioners of India
Salary₹250,000 (US$3,000) per month[2][3]
WebsiteElection Commission of India
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The Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC) heads the Election Commission of India, a body constitutionally empowered to conduct free and fair elections. An election commissioner is appointed by the President of India on the recommendation of a three member selection committee headed by the Prime Minister of India and senior most election commissioner is appointed as chief election commissioner. The term of a CEC can be a maximum of six years or till he/she attains sixty five years of age. The Chief Election Commissioner is usually a member of the Indian Civil Service and mostly from the Indian Administrative Service.

Role and powers

Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC) heads the Election Commission of India, a body constitutionally empowered to conduct free and fair elections to the national, the state legislatures, President and Vice-President. This power of the Election Commission of India is derived from the Article 324 of the Constitution of India.[4] Chief Election Commissioner is usually a member of the Indian Civil Service and mostly from the Indian Administrative Service. The Election Commission of India consists of a chief election commissioner and two election commissioners. The chief election commissioner does not have overruling powers and any decision is taken by the opinion of the majority among the three.[4]

Appointment and term of office

The appointment and term of the chief election commissioner prescribed in the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023. As per the Section 7 of the act, an election commissioner is appointed by the President of India on the recommendation of a selection committee headed by the Prime Minister of India and consisting of the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha and a member of the Union Council of Ministers to be nominated by the Prime Minister.[5] The senior most member of the election commission is appointed as the chief election commissioner by the President.[4] The term of the CEC can be a maximum of six years from the date on which he/she assumes his office. However, the CEC retires from office if he/she attains the age of sixty-five years before the expiry of the term.[4] The CEC can be removed by office through the process of impeachment requiring two-thirds majority of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to be present and voting for the same.[4]

Compensation

As per the Election Commission (Condition Of Service Of Election Commissions And Transaction Of Business) Act, 1991, the salary of the chief election commissioner is the same as salary of a Judge of Supreme Court of India.[2] The CEC draws a monthly salary of ₹350,000 (US$4,200) plus allowances.[2][3]

List of Chief Election Commissioners

The following have held the post of the Chief Election Commissioner of India.[6]

No. Name Portrait Term of office
1 Sukumar Sen 21 March 1950 19 December 1958 8 years, 273 days
2 Kalyan Sundaram 20 December 1958 30 September 1967 8 years, 284 days
3 S. P. Sen Verma 1 October 1967 30 September 1972 4 years, 365 days
4 Nagendra Singh 1 October 1972 6 February 1973 128 days
5 T. Swaminathan 7 February 1973 17 June 1977 4 years, 10 days
6 S. L. Shakdhar 18 June 1977 17 June 1982 4 years, 364 days
7 R. K. Trivedi 18 June 1982 31 December 1985 3 years, 196 days
8 R. V. S. Peri Sastri 1 January 1986 25 November 1990 4 years, 328 days
9 V. S. Ramadevi 26 November 1990 11 December 1990 16

days

10 T. N. Seshan 12 December 1990 11 December 1996 6 years
11 M. S. Gill 12 December 1996 13 June 2001 4 years 69 days
12 J. M. Lyngdoh 14 June 2001 7 February 2004 2 years 269 days
13 T. S. Krishnamurthy 8 February 2004 15 May 2005 1 year 69 days
14 B. B. Tandon 16 May 2005 29 June 2006 269 days
15 N. Gopalaswami 30 June 2006 20 April 2009 2 years, 294 days
16 Navin Chawla 21 April 2009 29 July 2010 1 year 89 days
17 S. Y. Quraishi 30 July 2010 10 June 2012 1 year 316 days
18 V. S. Sampath 11 June 2012 15 January 2015 2 year 218 days
19 Harishankar Brahma 16 January 2015 18 April 2015 92 days
20 Nasim Zaidi 19 April 2015[7] 5 July 2017 2 years 77 days
21 Achal Kumar Jyoti 6 July 2017[8] 22 January 2018 200 days
22 Om Prakash Rawat 23 January 2018[9] 1 December 2018 312 days
23 Sunil Arora 2 December 2018[10][11] 12 April 2021 2 years, 131 days
24 Sushil Chandra 13 April 2021[12] 14 May 2022 1 year, 31 days
25 Rajiv Kumar 15 May 2022 Incumbent[13] 2 years, 218 days

Reforms

The Election Commission of India was a single member body till 1989 when two election commissioners were appointed to aid the chief election commissioner.[4] While the office has always been an important one in the machinery of the Indian political process, it gained significant public attention during the tenure of T.N. Seshan, from 1990 to 1996.[14] Seshan is widely credited with enforcing the powers of the election commission strongly and undertaking a zealous effort to end corruption and manipulation in Indian elections.[15][16]

In June 2012, former Deputy Prime Minister of India and former Leader of the Opposition in Indian Parliament), Lal Krishna Advani suggested that appointment of CEC (as well as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)) should be made by a bipartisan collegium consisting of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice, the Law Minister and the Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.[17][18] As per Advani, the demand was to remove any impression of bias or lack of transparency and fairness because the existent system was open to manipulation and partisanship.[18][19] Subsequently, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M Karunanidhi also supported the suggestion.[19] Similar recommendations were made by former CEC's such as B B Tandon, N Gopalaswamy and S Y Quraishi.[20][21]

References

  1. ^ "Rajiv Kumar formally takes over as 25th Chief Election Commissioner". The Times of India. 19 May 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b c "Election Commission (Condition Of Service Of Election Commissions And Transaction Of Business) Act, 1991". Vakil No. 1. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  3. ^ a b "The High Court and Supreme Court Judges Salaries and Conditions of Service Amendment Bill 2008" (PDF). PRS India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 August 2017. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "Election, FAQ". Government of India. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  5. ^ "SC refuses to stay new law on appointment of CEC and ECs, issues notice to Centre". The Economic Times. 13 February 2024. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  6. ^ "Former Chief Election Commissioners". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  7. ^ "Election Commission of India". ECI.nic.in. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  8. ^ Borgohain, Sonalee, ed. (3 July 2017). "India's new Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Jyoti to take charge on 6 July". India Today. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  9. ^ "Om Prakash Rawat to succeed AK Joti as new Chief Election Commissioner". The Indian Express. New Delhi. 21 January 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  10. ^ "President Kovind appoints Sunil Arora as new Chief Election Commissioner". 26 November 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  11. ^ "Sunil Arora takes over as Chief Election Commissioner, will oversee 2019 polls". 2 December 2018.
  12. ^ Nath, Damini (12 April 2021). "Sushil Chandra appointed Chief Election Commissioner". The Hindu.
  13. ^ "Rajiv Kumar takes charge as 25th Chief Election Commissioner, says EC won't shy away from tough calls". The Hindu. 15 May 2022. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  14. ^ Narasimhan, T. E. (12 May 2012). "The more you kick me..." Business Standard. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  15. ^ Das, Sanjib Kumar (1 May 2014). "The man who cleaned up India's elections". Gulf News. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  16. ^ Srivastava, Ritesh K.(The Observer) (5 March 2012). "Empowering the EC". Zee News. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  17. ^ "Members Bioprofile". Lok Sabha of India/National Informatics Centre, New Delhi. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  18. ^ a b "KA2". The Times of India. 5 June 2012. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  19. ^ a b "Karunanidhi backs Advani's plea for collegium". The Hindu. Chennai. 5 June 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  20. ^ "SYQ". The Times of India. 16 July 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  21. ^ "Ex-CECs backed collegium, Law Ministry not too keen". The Indian Express. 10 June 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
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