Why is CJI not involved in the appointment of Election Commissioner? Why is CCTV footage deleted after 45 days? Shah told

The opposition had asked the government why the Chief Justice of India (CJI) was removed from the appointment panel of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners. Why is CCTV footage and data destroyed after 45 days after elections? Home Minister Amit Shah answered these questions during the discussion on election reforms in the Lok Sabha. He said, everything is clearly written yet they cannot see it. The work of Congress is only to mislead the country.

Why was the CJI removed from the election commissioner appointment process?

• Amit Shah completely rejected the opposition’s allegation that the government wants to capture the Election Commission. Citing history, he said that the people who are raising questions today, there were no rules during their rule.
• Shah told the House, for 73 years there was no law for the appointment of Election Commissioner in this country. Appointments were made directly by the Prime Minister. All the Election Commissioners appointed till now have been elected in this manner.
• From 1950 to 1989, the Prime Minister used to send the file and the President used to issue notifications. Was it good then? Till then no questions were raised. Now that Narendra Modi is making appointments by making laws, questions are being raised.
• Shah said that in 1989, when the then government felt that the Election Commissioner was not listening to them, for the first time the rules were tampered with and the commission was made multi-member. After this the matter went to court.

Complete chronology explained

• The Supreme Court had suggested that there should be transparency in the appointment of the Election Commissioner.
• At that time the government was in the Supreme Court and had said that time was needed to make the law.
• The court said – until the Parliament makes a law, the appointment will be made by a committee which will include the Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition and the CJI.
• Parliament made a law in 2023. It was decided that the leader of the opposition, the Prime Minister and a Union Minister nominated by the Prime Minister would together decide the Election Commissioner.

The Supreme Court’s order was for ’till the law is made’. Now that the Parliament has made the law, the role of the CJI has ended, because in a democracy the right to make laws rests with the Parliament. Now they are facing problems, whereas for 70 years they installed their favorite officers without any committee.
-Amit Shah

Why does CCTV footage get destroyed in 45 days?

1. The second major allegation of the opposition was that the evidence is destroyed by deleting the CCTV footage of EVMs and strong rooms after 45 days. Instead of calling it an issue of technicality or conspiracy, Amit Shah called it simply a matter of ‘law enforcement’.
2. Amit Shah cited Section 81 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. He explained, there is a rule under Section 81 of the Representation of the People Act that those contesting elections have a chance to challenge the results in the court (Election Petition) for 45 days. The challenge given after that is not valid.
3. Shah argued that when the law itself says that no dispute can be raised on the election results after 45 days, then what is the justification for storing such huge data (CCTV footage)?
4. He said, when there is no point of dispute in the law after 45 days, then what is the point of having CCTV? That’s why it was done. It has been aligned only according to that law.

Everything is already decided in the Constitution

Making a sharp attack on Congress, Amit Shah said, I want to make the country aware about the untrue things said by the Congress Party and want to answer them. The selection of the Election Commission, its powers and the election process are clearly mentioned in the Constitution. In this, what will be the definition of voter, how will the voter list be prepared, and how will improvements be made in it, all these rules are already decided. Shah sarcastically said, when these provisions were made, our party (BJP) did not exist. All this is the structure built during the time of Congress, on which today they themselves are raising questions.