India's CEC recommends removal of Navin Chawla

New Delhi, Jan 31 (PTI) The battle in India's Election
Commission has assumed unprecedented proportions with Chief
Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami recommending to the
government removal of the other Election Commissioner Navin
Chawla.

The recommendation comes about three months before
Gopalaswami is to demit office on April 20 and is based on a
petition by the BJP which had complained against the
"partisan" functioning of Chawla.

The BJP had alleged that Chawla was close to the
Congress party

"I did my job. The report has been given," Gopalswami
told PTI but declined to elaborate.

The Chief Election Commissioner's recommendation ahead
of the general elections brings to the fore the differences
among the three-member body which has often been marred by
clashes over crucial decisions.

Only last year, Chawla had raised serious objections
to the holding of the Karnataka assembly elections in May but
was over ruled.

Similarly, he is believed to have also had
reservations over the conduct of assembly elections of Uttar
Pradesh in the summer of 2007.

Under the provisions of the Constitution, the
recommendation of the CEC was required for the removal of an
Election Commissioner. But it is not clear whether the
government would act on the suo motu recommendation of the
CEC for removal of Chawla.

Sources said that Gopalaswami has believed to have
given the recommendation but he was not sure whether the
government would accept it.

The Commission works on the principle of consensus and
in case of differences, it goes by majority opinion.

Gopalaswami is understood to be of the view that
Chawla and the other Election Commissioner S Y Qurashi could
get together and ensure that the Lok Sabha elections could
very well start after April 20 once he is out of the
Commission.

In 2006, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K
Advani and 204 MPs had submitted a petition to then President
A P J Abdul Kalam seeking the removal of Chawla as Election
Commissioner on the ground of alleged partisanship. The main
opposition party also took the matter to the Supreme Court.

Gopalaswami in his affidavit to the apex court had
claimed that the CEC had suo motu power to recommend the
removal of an Election Commissioner. Following which the BJP
withdrew its petition in the apex court and again took up the
issue with the CEC.

Government had maintained in the Supreme Court that
the CEC had no suo motu power power to remove an Election
Commissioner.

This is for the second time that removal of an
Election Commissioner is coming up before the poll panel.
In 1990, soon after the National Front government came to
power, it removed two Commissioners appointed by the Rajiv
Gandhi government by reducing the number of Commissioners from
the three-member Commission just before the 1998 polls. PTI MS
PMR
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