The Supreme Court asked the Centre on Wednesday to produce before it the file related to the appointment of Election Commissioner Arun Goel, who was appointed on November 19.
Any 'hanky panky' in appointing the Election Commissioner
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice K M Joseph said it wants to know whether there was any "hanky panky" in Goel's appointment as election commissioner as he was only recently given voluntary retirement from service.
The bench rejected the objections of Attorney General R Venkataramani on the court willing to see the file related to Goel's appointment while the hearing is on.
Venkataramani said the court is dealing with the larger issue of appointment of ECs and the chief election commissioner (CEC) and it cannot look at an individual case flagged by advocate Prashant Bhushan. "I take serious objection to this and have my reservation to the court seeing the file amidst the hearing of a Constitution bench," he said.
The bench said it started hearing the matter last Thursday and Goel's appointment was effected subsequently on November 19 and therefore, it wants to see what prompted the step.
Arun Goel's appointment to the ECI
Arun Goel, a 1985 batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre who took voluntary retirement from Friday, was appointed to the election body on Saturday. He was to retire on December 31, 2022 after completing 60 years of age.
According to the law dealing with appointment, service conditions and retirement of election commissioners, a person can hold the office of an EC or CEC for six years or till attaining the age of 65, whichever is earlier. Hence, Goel will be in office till December 2027.
His appointment comes days before Gujarat goes to two-phase polls on December 1 and December 5.
(With inputs from PTI)
