The Supreme Court ruled that under the Constitutional mandate, State Election Commission must be independent persons and that states can’t appoint a person who holds any office with the ruling government. The State needs an independent EC official as mandated under Article 243(4) of the Constitution. The independence of the EC cannot be compromised in a democracy. The Goa government had appointed its Law Secretary as the State Election Commissioner for conducting the Municipal Council elections in the State. It’s a disturbing fact that a government servant, while being in employment with the Goa government, was incharge of the Goa State Election Commission. It’s a mockery of the Constitution. The independence of Election Commissions is sacrosanct under the Constitution and that no government can even give additional charge of State Election Commission to a bureaucrat serving under the government. It should also cancel elections in other municipalities where the reservation is not as per the Constitution. This is government’s attempt to violate the Constitution and derail democracy. Election Commission was an independent body when T N Seshan was the Election Commissioner, before and after that the commissioners were toolkit of the ruling government.
