The Supreme Court of India has served a notice to the Centre on the issue of job protection of Election Commissions of the Election Commission of India.

Under the existing practice, in order to remove from power an incumbent Chief Election Commissioner, an impeachment motion can be moved in Parliament.  However, the other two Election Commissioners can either be removed by the Election Commission itself (read: CEC) or by the Centre as the question of impeachment in Parliament in their case doesn’t arise at all.

Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay, a leading lawyer and spokesperson of the Delhi State Unit of the BJP, had moved the apex Court in this regard requesting the Court to ensure that job protection is common or uniform in respect of all 3 Election Commissioners of the Election Commission including the Chief Election Commissioner.

The petition was taken up by a Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Kanvilkar and Justice Chandrachud. The Bench ordered that notices be served on the Centre as well as on the Election Commission to file their replies within four weeks.