State Election Commission-recent Supreme Court ruling on its autonomy

Introduction

This article discusses the inadequate devolution of powers to urban and rural local bodies as a self-contained third tier of governance.

Poor conduction of fair elections at the local level

The manner in which their representatives are elected is often beset by controversies.
Local polls are often marred by violence, and charges of arbitrary delimitation and reservation of wards.

Need for an independent and autonomous State Election Commission (SEC)

A key factor in any local body polls being conducted in a free and fair manner is the extent to which the State Election Commissioner, the authority that supervises the elections, is independent and autonomous.

Decline in the confidence on State Election Commissioner

Unfortunately, most regimes in the States appoint senior bureaucrats from among their favourites to this office.
In practice, SECs frequently face charges of being partisan.
Routine exercises such as delimiting wards, rotating the wards reserved for women and Scheduled Castes and fixing dates for the elections become mired in controversy as a result, as the Opposition tends to believe that the exercise is being done with the ruling party’s interest in mind.
Even though this cannot be generalised in respect of all States and all those manning the position, it is undeniable that SECs do not seem to enjoy the confidence of political parties and the public to the same extent as the Election Commission of India as far as their independence is concerned.

Supreme Court’s judgement

It is against this backdrop that the Supreme Court’s judgment declaring that a State Election Commissioner should be someone completely independent of the State government acquires salience.
It has described the Goa government’s action in asking its Law Secretary to hold additional charges as SEC as a “mockery of the Constitutional mandate”.
By invoking its extraordinary power under Article 142 of the Constitution, the Court has asked all SECs who are under the direct control of the respective State governments to step down from their posts.

In Practice

In practice, most States appoint retired bureaucrats as SECs.
Whether the apex court’s decision would have a bearing on those who are no more serving State governments remains to be seen.
More significantly, the Court has boosted the power of the election watchdog by holding that it is open to the SECs to countermand any infractions of the law made by the State government in the course of preparing for local body polls.

Way forward

However, it is clear that these governments will now have to find a way to appoint to the office only those who are truly independent and not beholden to it in any manner.
The verdict will help secure the independence of SECs in the future.

Source: TH

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