New Delhi: Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami clarified in a communication to The Hindu that he had stated before the Supreme Court only that the CEC could recommend the removal of an Election Commissioner, not that he had the power to remove an Election Commissioner on his own.
Reacting to the report published on Saturday, he said it had incorrectly stated that he had asserted that as CEC he had the power to remove an Election Commissioner under Article 324 (5) of the Constitution. “Having attributed an assertion to me which I never made, the news item then proceeds to demolish it in paras 2 and 3, quoting other authorities that the ‘CEC has no power to decide the issue.’ Since I never made the assertion which the correspondent attributes to me in the first instance, his ‘demolition’ of my ‘assertion’ is entirely irrelevant.”
Quite apart from CEC’s clarification, what has come under challenge from the Government is his statement in the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court that “it is the understanding of the Chief Election Commissioner that the powers vested in him under the second proviso to Article 324 (5) of the Constitution can be exercised by him on information which has come to his knowledge during the course of his functioning as the CEC or on the basis of any formal representation or petition filed before him by a political party or by any other persons or body. In the former case, it would be in exercise of suo motu powers by the Chief Election Commissioner, while in the latter case he would be acting on the basis of the petition or representation filed by a third party.”
