Should the Supreme Court have done more to ensure free and fair elections?

Looking back at the recently concluded Lok Sabha election cycle, the longest in India’s history, it is easy not to take notice of the role the Supreme Court has played in the conduct of the elections.

After all, the Supreme Court has adopted a hands-off approach in relation to almost all election-related cases that it heard in the last six weeks, deferring to the authority of the Election Commission of India.

However, the refusal to act in most cases impacted the election in significant ways.

There is no consensus among legal experts on whether the court’s approach is desirable, especially in light of the alleged abdication by the Election Commission of its function to conduct the election in a free and fair manner.

Hands-off approach

In March last year, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had changed the process for appointment of election commissioners in order to secure their independence. The court had created a committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India to make appointments to the Election Commission until Parliament enacted a law on the subject.

However, in December, the Parliament passed a law that created a new committee to nominate members to the Election Commission comprising the Prime Minister, the Leader of...

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