EC Independence Imperiled if Commissioners Tied to Contestants, Justice Nagarathna Warns

Election Commission's Independence Questioned by Supreme Court Judge

Justice BV Nagarathna, a Supreme Court judge, has highlighted the critical concern of the structural independence of institutions tasked with overseeing the election process. In a lecture at the Chanakya Law University in Patna on Saturday, Justice Nagarathna emphasized that the Election Commission, recognized as a constitutional authority of high significance in a 1995 Supreme Court verdict, must maintain its neutrality.

According to Justice Nagarathna, elections are not just periodic events but a mechanism through which political authority is constituted. She pointed out that control over the election process is, in effect, control over the conditions of political competition itself. Justice Nagarathna also noted that power is not exercised only through formal institutions but also through the processes that sustain them, including elections, public finance, and regulation.

The Supreme Court judge emphasized that a constitutional structure that seeks to restrain power must address these fourth-branch institutions, which are central to the maintenance of constitutional order. Citing the lesson of history, Justice Nagarathna warned that constitutional collapse occurs through the disabling of its structure, and the violation of rights merely follows.

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Justice Nagarathna also called for the Centre to view states as "coordinates and not subordinates" and asserted that the separation of powers is a "constitutional arrangement of co-equals." She emphasized the need to keep aside "inter-party differences" in Centre-state relations, underscoring that governance must not depend on which party is ruling the Centre and which other party is ruling at the state level.