New Delhi: Amid protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla Thursday said if the opposition brings any fresh impeachment motion against the country’s top poll officer, it will be examined according to rules and procedures.
The Opposition has twice attempted to remove Kumar. In the first move, the notices were rejected by both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha while the notices submitted in the second attempt are still pending in the Upper House. “If any fresh notice comes, we will see and examine it accordingly under rules and procedures,” Birla told a press conference here, responding to a question on a possible impeachment motion against the CEC. There have been protests in the last fortnight in different parts of India seeking the resignation of Kumar for alleged irregularities while carrying out the special intensive revision of voters list.
According to the Constitution and law on the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners, a CEC can only be removed by Parliament the way a sitting Supreme Court judge can be impeached. The Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, also says the CEC or an Election Commissioner may resign at any time by submitting in writing to the President. According to Article 124, which deals with the Supreme Court, a judge of the Supreme Court shall not be removed from his office except by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.
The Judges (Inquiry) Act of 1968 says that once a motion to remove a judge is admitted in any of the Houses, the Speaker or the Chairman, as the case may be, will constitute a three-member committee to investigate the grounds on which the removal (or, in popular terms, impeachment) has been sought. The committee consists of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) or a Supreme Court judge, the Chief Justice of one of the 25 High Courts and a “distinguished jurist”.
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