NEW DELHI: It is not the first time that faultlines within the Election Commission are out in the open. The trend started from the time it became a multi-member body in 1989, reports Bharti Jain.Two election commissioners S S Dhanoa and V S Seigell were appointed in Oct 1989 and joined EC then led by chief election commissioner (CEC) R V S Peri Sastri. It is widely believed the new arrangement was perceived by Shastri as a dilution in power. By Jan 1990, their appointments were rescinded, and EC reverted to being a single-member body.
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In 1993, with T N Seshan as an all-powerful CEC, the commission was once again made a multi-member body with appointment of ECs M S Gill and G V G Krishnamurthy. What followed was a running feud between Seshan on the one hand and Gill and Krishnamurthy on the other. It was on Seshan’s plea challenging govt’s decision to make EC a multi-member body that the SC had, in 1995, ruled that the election commissioners and CEC were equal in status, power, and decision-making authority and that CEC was only “first among equals”.The other internal feud in EC to recall would be one between then CEC N Gopalaswami and election commissioner Navin Chawla between 2006 and 2009. Months before he was to step down, Gopalaswami wrote to the President recommending the removal of Chawla for a pro-Congress bias.Differences cropped up between then CEC Sunil Arora and then EC Ashok Lavasa, both appointees of Modi govt, during the 2019 LS polls. Lavasa resigned on Aug 18, 2020, two years short of his tenure.