Chief Justice of India Sanjeev Khanna on Tuesday withdrew from hearing petitions challenging the law on appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners.

A bench of CJI Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar was hearing the matter, when the former asked the lawyers appearing for the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petitioners to now hear the petitions. can’t

The petitions challenged the validity of Sections 7 and 8 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Tenure of Office) Act, 2023.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankararayanan and advocate Prashant Bhushan said an earlier bench headed by Justice Khanna had passed an interim order in the matter.

However, Justice Khanna succeeded Justice DY Chandrachud as Chief Justice of India in early November.

Therefore, these batches of petitions will now be heard by another bench after winter, in the week commencing 6 January 2025.

A Supreme Court bench headed by CJI Khanna, however, asked the central government Election Commission of India To enter your answers in this case.

Furthermore, by the new law, the Chief Justice of India was excluded from a committee to appoint the CEC and other ECs. Now his appointment will be made on the basis of the recommendation of a committee headed by the Prime Minister comprising of Cabinet Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition.

A Live Law report said that the petitions were filed before the Supreme Court by Congress leader Jaya Thakur, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Lok Prahari among others.

The Election Commissioners Act, passed in December 2023, replaced the Election Commission (Conditions of Service and Transactions of Business of Election Commissioners) Act, 1991.

The most salient feature of the new law is that the President will appoint the Election Commissioners based on the recommendation of the Selection Committee, which will be given after considering the list of candidates recommended by a committee headed by the Union Law Minister.