NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) of NGO 'Association for Democratic Reforms challenging the appointment of Arun Goel as Election Commissioner. A bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna said a Constitution bench had perused the file on the appointment of Goel but refrained from quashing his appointment and the issue cannot now be re-examined.
“We find the Constitution bench did not pass any order on the appointment. We are not inclined to issue notice, accordingly, the matter is dismissed,” the bench said.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the government said that the constitution bench could have quashed the appointment, but it did not. Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the NGO submitted that the appointment was done arbitrarily and the whole process was mala fide. He said the selection process adopted by the government was questionable.
The plea said that there were 160 officers who belonged to the 1985 batch and some of them were younger than Goel. However, without any explanation as to why the officers were younger in age than Goel and who would have a full tenure of six years as mandated by Section 4 of the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991 were not empanelled, the government appointed Goel as Election Commissioner, it added.