Chief Election Commissioner of India
Constitutional post to the Government of India
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Through President of India, Constitution of India and Lok Sabha
The term of a CEC can be a maximum of six years or until they attain 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.
The chief election commissioner is placed at 9A position in the order of precedence in India along with the chairperson of Union Public Service Commission and the comptroller and auditor general of India.
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 legislature, 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. The 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.
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Appointment and term of office
The appointment and term of the chief election commissioner are prescribed in the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023. As per 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 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. The senior most member of the election commission is appointed as the chief election commissioner by the president.
The term of the CEC can be a maximum of six years from the date on which they assume their office. However, the CEC retires from office if they attain the age of sixty-five years before the expiry of the term.
The CEC can be removed from the office through the process of impeachment, requiring a two-thirds majority of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha to be present and voting for the same.
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. The CEC draws a monthly salary of ₹250,000 (US$2,600) plus allowances.
List of chief election commissioners
The following have held the post of the chief election commissioner of India.
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. 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. 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.
In June 2012, former deputy prime minister 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 (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. 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. Subsequently, the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M Karunanidhi, also supported the suggestion. Similar recommendations were made by former CEC's such as B B Tandon, N Gopalaswamy and S Y Quraishi.