"Additional Election Commissioners are a great superfluity."
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"Additional Election Commissioners are a great superfluity." |
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Video From MyLaw |
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This Video Uploaded At 20-12-2010 10:19:10 |
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When asked about the period of the Emergency in India, T.N. Seshan replied, "It was my good fortune that during those periods I was isolated and insulated in scientific departments. I was in the department of Space in 1975 when the Emergency was imposed, till 1976. In 1976 I came back to Madras and then in 1977 to ONGC. I have no personal experience of the Emergency as a government servant. I only knew that during the Emergency things worked better and more efficiently".
On the subject of the appointment and removal of the top election officers, he said that, "the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners are appointed by the President of India. It is done under the recommendation of the political government in office. If the Chief Election Commissioner is such a high profile job, wisdom demands that in his selection there is a certain collegium of people who select and not merely the Prime Minister. The Goswami Committee in 1990 had recommended and said the selection of the Chief Election Commissioner should be done by a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Speaker, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha who is the Vice President of India, the Chief Justice of India and the leader of the Opposition. These five people together should select the Chief Election Commissioner and when the Election Commissioner is to be selected the Chief Election Commissioner was also to join. To this day the Government has not accepted this". He said that the criteria adopted in order to select and appoint people, was not clear.
Speaking on the issue of the removal of the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners, Seshan said, "The Constitution wanted that the Chief Election Commissioner should be removed only by a process similar to impeachment. The law today says that the other two Election Commissioners can be removed upon the recommendation of the Chief Election Commissioner. The Chief Election Commissioner can be removed only by the process of impeachment".
In the year 1993, the post of two additional election commissioners was added. Speaking about this, Seshan said, "Mr. Narashimha Rao and the Congress Government of those days found that I was not amenable to their say so. They tried all their means at their disposable they threatened me, coaxed me, cajoled me. When everything failed they decided to appoint two additional commissioners. They said I was suffering from excess work. I was suffering from gross inadequacy of work".
Seshan filed a petition challenging the appointment of the two additional Commissioners and lost the case in the Supreme Court. Commenting on the addition of two Commissioners, Seshan said, "In my view it is a great superfluity."
Seshan was also responsible for invoking a dormant 1950 law, mandating that a Rajya Sabha nominee must file nominations from the place of his residence. Speaking on this Seshan said, "There is a peculiar provision in the Constitution which says that the states' power of legislation on subjects in the State list can be taken over by Parliament provided the Rajya Sabha passes a resolution".
In order for the Rajya Sabha to do this, the Rajya Sabha must have representatives from that particular state to speak for or against it. However, this nativity issue has been given up by the Parliament. "Parliament has given it up... Parliament is supreme", he said.
He predicts that in ten to fifteen years, voting would be conducted over the Internet. He cautioned however, that the amount of misuse that can happen today is enormous. "I keep telling people that I do not vote. That is only for public consumption. Very very privately, at seven in the morning I vote and come back". |
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News & Politics |
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Emergency | Narasimha Rao | Supreme Court | Election Commission | T.N. Seshan | Chief Election Commissioner | Constitution of India |
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