Election Commissioner Arun Goel resigned on Saturday (March 9), just days before the scheduled announcement for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. According to a law ministry notification, President Droupadi Murmu officially accepted Mr. Goel's resignation, effective immediately. Mr Goel attributed his resignation to "personal reasons", despite government efforts to dissuade him from stepping down, sources told NDTV.
According to the Hindustan Times report, a key point of difference was over the poll body’s February 17, 2023, order on the allocation of the Shiv Sena’s party name and poll symbol (Bow and Arrow) to the Eknath Shinde faction on the basis of legislative majority.
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In the Shiv Sena order, the poll body relied only on the legislative majority. It only considered how parliamentarians and state legislators chose between the Shinde or the Uddhav Thackeray faction. Though the final order did not have a dissent note, three officials told HT that the commissioners disagreed, which was not publicized in the office.
Goel is said to have wanted the precedent to be maintained and for the poll body to consider both organizational and legislative majority for the test of majority. However, the final order relied only on the legislative majority.
The Shiv Sena order was used as a precedent in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) case last month. In the NCP order, the EC said it could not determine if elections to party posts had even been held. These two EC orders are the only ones to rely on the legislative majority alone instead of both the legislative and organizational majority.
Also Read | Election Commissioner Arun Goel Resigns Ahead of Lok Sabha Elections.
The EC filed a 10-page counter-affidavit on March 14, 2023, arguing that since the February 17 order was passed in the EC’s quasi-judicial capacity and not its administrative capacity, the EC had become functus officio in this case, that is, it had performed its official function.
Two officials told HT that Goel was not kept in the loop about this counter-affidavit. The document was sent to the EC’s advocate on record without being signed by Anup Chandra Pandey (who retired on February 15) or Goel. The deputy election commissioner had sent the counter-affidavit to Kumar directly for approval instead of first sending it to Goel and Pandey. Goel summoned the DEC in charge of the counter-affidavit and also demanded the file for inspection. Two officials told HT that the original file had not been found and the legal department instead had to start a “part file”.