Arun Goel was secretary, Union Ministry of Heavy Industries, till he took voluntary retirement on November 18, a day before being appointed as Election Commissioner.
AGENCIES / NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to submit files relating to the recent appointment of Retired Punjab cadre IAS officer Arun Goel as the new Election Commissioner, as it wanted to see if everything was “hunky-dory”, Live Law reported.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Justice K M Joseph, which is hearing petitions seeking an independent mechanism to appoint Election Commissioners, observed that it would have been appropriate had the appointment not been made when the matter was being heard.
The court asked the Attorney General to bring the files related to the appointment of Goel on Thursday. “Because this appointment was made after we began hearing this case…”, the Court said as quoted by Live Law.
The bench rejected the objections of Attorney General R Venkataramani on the court willing to see the file related to Goel’s appointment while the hearing is on.
Venkataramani said the court is dealing with the larger issue of appointment of ECs and the chief election commissioner (CEC) and it cannot look at an individual case flagged by advocate Prashant Bhushan.
“I take serious objection to this and have my reservation to the court seeing the file amidst the hearing of a Constitution bench,” he said.
The bench said it started hearing the matter last Thursday and Goel’s appointment was effected subsequently on November 19 and therefore, it wants to see what prompted the step.