CEC recommends removal of Navin Chawla

The battle in the Election Commission has taken a new turn with chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami making a recommendation for removal of election commissioner Navin Chawla, a decision that triggered a controversy and came under attack from Constitutional experts.
 
Chawla, whose removal was recommended by Gopalaswami to the government on a petition filed by the BJP which had accused him of acting with bias in favour of the Congress, ruled out his resignation.
       
"I did my job. The report has been given. It is a privileged document. I do not want to comment any further," Gopalaswami said on his action, the first by a CEC in the annals of the Commission in the last six decades.
       
Political parties were quick to react to the development with BJP demanding immediate removal of Chawla saying government has no other option while Congress rejected the demand.
      
The action of Gopalaswami, who demits office on April 20, comes ahead of the General Elections likely to be held between April and May. Chawla may succeed Gopalaswami as the next CEC as he is senior to another EC S Y Quraishi.
      
"Why should I resign," said Chawla when asked whether he would quit in the wake of CEC's recommendation. "We have to conduct General Elections and so we must continue to work unitedly in that direction", he said refusing to comment on the CEC's action.

This is the second time that the question of removal of Election Commissioners has cropped up. In the first instance, the National Front government had in 1990 removed two Commissioners -- S S Dhanoa and K S Sehgal -- appointed by the Rajiv Gandhi government before the 1989 elections by reducing the strength of the Commission to one.

The business of the three-member body has often been marked by sharp differences over crucial decisions.

Only last year, Chawla had raised serious objections to the holding of the assembly polls in Karnataka in May but was overruled. Similarly, he is believed to have also had reservations over the conduct of assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in summer of 2007.

Under Article 324(5) of the Constitution, an election commissioner shall not be removed from office except on the recommendation of the CEC. But it is not clear whether the government would act on the CEC's recommendation for removal of Chawla.

Sources said Gopalaswami is believed to have given the recommendation but he was not sure about its fate at the hands of the government.

The Commission works on the principle of consensus and in case of differences, it goes by majority opinion.

Gopalaswami is understood to be of the view that Chawla and the other Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi could get together and ensure that the Lok Sabha polls could start after April 20 once he is out of the Commission. The House has to be constituted by June one.

The CEC's action arose out of a petition filed by the BJP-led NDA to the then President A P J Abdul Kalam seeking Chawla's removal on the ground of partisanship. Complaining that the government was not acting on it, the BJP took the matter to the Supreme Court.

Gopalaswami in his affidavit to the court claimed that as CEC he has the power to recommend removal of an election commissioner. The BJP then withdrew the petition and took it up with the CEC. The government, however, disputed the CEC's contention.

Constitutional experts have attacked Gopalaswami's decision, saying it has created a crisis and the timing could make people believe that there was "some motivation".

"There is a crisis created by the CEC. I am a little surprised that he did it at the time when he did it. If he had done it a year ago, it might have been considered to be bona fide because he was entitled to his views.
        
"But unfortunately he had done it at a time when reasonable ordinary people will believe that there is some motivation behind it," noted jurist Fali S Nariman said.

Maintaining that Gopalaswami has brought the high office into controversy, he said it was not binding on the government to accept the CEC's recommendations.

Former Union law minister Shanti Bhushan said Gopalaswami should have written to the government long ago and not on the eve of the elections.

"At this stage to create a crisis of this kind is wholly improper and the CEC ought to resign," he said.
        
However, another senior Supreme Court lawyer Harish Salve said the CEC has given his view consistent with the directives of the Supreme Court and there could be no motives attached to his action or the timing.
        
He said the BJP had made the representation to the CEC and the issue was before him. He dismissed the issue creating a crisis saying that the Commission could continue to run its business as usual.