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Opinions may differ from Centre, AG tells SC on autonomy for EC

In October 2017, advocate Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking autonomy for the Election Commission

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The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre and the Election Commission to file their responses on a plea seeking autonomy for the poll panel. However, Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal, who was directed to advise the top court on this matter, suggested the Centre file its own response on the plea since their opinions may differ.

The bench led by CJI Dipak Misra granted the Centre and the poll panel four weeks time to file their response.

In October 2017, advocate Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking autonomy for the Election Commission. To strengthen the independence of the election process and maintain its purity, the petition sought a new framework to empower the EC to make rules after consultation with the government.

Kumar suggested that “maintaining purity of elections requires multi-pronged approach, which includes removing influence of money and muscle power, introducing internal democracy and financial transparency in functioning of political parties, strengthening the EC, regulating opinion polls, paid news.”

In addition, Kumar also sought parity for the election commissioners so that they are not removed from their office except on like grounds as the Chief Election Commissioner.

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