PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said the order appointing a new State Election Commissioner (SEC) will be issued by Thursday.
The Government has shortlisted the name of Retired IAS officer W V Ramanamurthy as the SEC.
Ramanamurthy who was a Goa civil services cadre office was elevated to the AGMUT IAS cadre and has been Secretary for Social Welfare, Civil Aviation etc, in Goa govt.
Slammed by the Supreme Court of India for appointing its own serving bureaucrat rather than an ‘Independent’ personality as the SEC last week, the Sawant-led government was again left red-faced when a retired bureaucrat it had chosen, Narayan Navti, declined the position after the recommendation had been approved by Goa governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari on Sunday last.
Navti had served for several years as Joint Chief Electoral Officer under the Election Commission of India before his superannuation.
In its judgement last week, the three-member bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, B R Gavai and Hrishikesh Roy, had slammed the Goa government for entrusting additional charge of SEC to a government official calling it mockery of the Constitution.
The bench ordered that an “independent election commissioner” be appointed.
The state government had given additional charge of the SEC to serving Law Secretary Chokha Ram Garg, IAS.
The Apex court had also directed that SECs in all States across the country, who held additional charge, step down immediately.
