The Election Commission and the Judgment

Ramaswamy R Iyer The hidden dangers of Article 324 would have remained in abeyance so long as the power of final decision-making was presumed to vest in the chief election commissioner, who was irremovable and therefore independent. However, once the chief election commissioner is reduced to the position of one among equals and is denied any special power or authority, those dangers become very real. What the ordinance (act) did was to marry the collegiate principle to the existing provisions of Article 324, thus accentuating the weaknesses inherent in those provisions. It is that ordinance (act) which the judgment has upheld in full; and that judgment is now the law of the land and we have to live with it. However, if we accept a collegiate system, it is necessary to eliminate or at least mitigate the dangers implicit in the existing provisions of Article 324.