The Chief Election Commissioner of India heads the Election Commission of India, a body constitutionally empowered to conduct free and fair elections to the national and state legislatures and of President and Vice-President. This power of the Election Commission of India is derived from the Article 324 of the Constitution of India. Chief Election Commissioner of India is usually a member of the Indian Civil Service and mostly from the Indian Administrative Service. It is very difficult to remove the authority of the Chief Election Commissioner once appointed by the president, as two-thirds of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha need to present and vote against him for disorderly conduct or improper actions.
Chief Election Commissioner of India | |
---|---|
Election Commission of India | |
Nominator | Union Council of Ministers |
Appointer | President of India |
Term length | 6 years or up to 65 years of age (whichever is prior) |
Inaugural holder | Sukumar Sen |
Deputy | Election Commissioners of India Deputy Election Commissioners of India |
Salary | ₹250,000 (US$3,100) per month[1][2] |
Website | Election Commission of India |
India was among the early countries to use a completely electronic ballot in the parliamentary elections in 2014,[3] which the Election Commission of India implemented across India's large and diverse population with many rural illiterate people.
While the office has always been an important one in the machinery of the Indian political process, it gained significant public attention during the tenure of T.N. Seshan, from 1990 to 1996. Seshan is widely credited with undertaking a zealous effort to end corruption and manipulation in Indian elections.[4][5][6]
In June 2012, Lal Krishna Advani, a veteran Indian politician and former Deputy Prime Minister of India (as well as former Leader of the Opposition in Indian Parliament),[7] suggested that appointment of CEC (as well as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)) should be made by a bipartisan collegium consisting of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice, the Law Minister and the Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.[8][9] Subsequently, M Karunanidhi, the head of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party and five times Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu[10] supported the suggestion. Advani made this demand to remove any impression of bias or lack of transparency and fairness because, according to him, the current system was open to "manipulation and partisanship".[8][9] Similar demand was made by many former CEC's such as B B Tandon, N Gopalaswamy and S Y Quraishi.[11][12]
Salary |
---|
₹350,000 (US$4,400) monthly[1][2] |
By the "Election Commission (Condition of Service of Election Commissions And Transaction of Business) Act, 1991", the salary of the chief election commissioner is the same as salary of a Judge of Supreme Court of India.[1] If there are other election commissioners appointed by the President to help the chief election commissioner, they also receive the same salary.
The following have held the post of the Chief Election Commissioner of India.[13]
No. | Name | Portrait | Term of office | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sukumar Sen | 21 March 1950 | 19 December 1958 | 8 years, 273 days | |
2 | Kalyan Sundaram | 20 December 1958 | 30 September 1967 | 8 years, 284 days | |
3 | S. P. Sen Verma | 1 October 1967 | 30 September 1972 | 4 years, 365 days | |
4 | Nagendra Singh | 1 October 1972 | 6 February 1973 | 128 days | |
5 | T. Swaminathan | 7 February 1973 | 17 June 1977 | 4 years, 10 days | |
6 | S. L. Shakdhar | 18 June 1977 | 17 June 1982 | 4 years, 364 days | |
7 | R. K. Trivedi | 18 June 1982 | 31 December 1985 | 3 years, 196 days | |
8 | R. V. S. Peri Sastri | 1 January 1986 | 25 November 1990 | 4 years, 328 days | |
9 | V. S. Ramadevi | 26 November 1990 | 11 December 1990 | 16
days | |
10 | T. N. Seshan | 12 December 1990 | 11 December 1996 | 6 years | |
11 | M. S. Gill | 12 December 1996 | 13 June 2001 | 4 years 69 days | |
12 | J. M. Lyngdoh | 14 June 2001 | 7 February 2004 | 2 years 269 days | |
13 | T. S. Krishnamurthy | 8 February 2004 | 15 May 2005 | 1 year 69 days | |
14 | B. B. Tandon | 16 May 2005 | 29 June 2006 | 269 days | |
15 | N. Gopalaswami | 30 June 2006 | 20 April 2009 | 2 years, 294 days | |
16 | Navin Chawla | 21 April 2009 | 29 July 2010 | 1 year 89 days | |
17 | S. Y. Quraishi | 30 July 2010 | 10 June 2012 | 1 year 316 days | |
18 | V. S. Sampath | 11 June 2012 | 15 January 2015 | 2 year 218 days | |
19 | Harishankar Brahma | 16 January 2015 | 18 April 2015 | 92 days | |
20 | Nasim Zaidi | 19 April 2015[14] | 5 July 2017 | 2 years 77 days | |
21 | Achal Kumar Jyoti | 6 July 2017[15] | 22 January 2018 | 200 days | |
22 | Om Prakash Rawat | 23 January 2018[16] | 1 December 2018 | 312 days | |
23 | Sunil Arora | 2 December 2018[17][18] | 12 April 2021 | 2 years, 131 days | |
24 | Sushil Chandra | 13 April 2021[19] | 14 May 2022 | 1 year, 31 days | |
25 | Rajiv Kumar | 15 May 2022 | Incumbent[20] | 1 year, 318 days |