Supreme Court to Examine Plea to Recall Election Law Order

The Supreme Court said on October 7 it would examine an application seeking recall of its September 23 order in challenges to the 2023 law governing appointments to the Election Commission. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said the court would decide whether to take up the request after senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan brought it to the bench’s attention. The application’s merits have not been decided. The request concerns a split ruling by Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma on whether petitions challenging the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office Act, 2023 should be referred to a larger bench. The judges expressed different views on that question, and the matter was directed toward consideration by a larger bench. The exact procedural terms of the September 23 direction were described differently in accounts of the ruling. Sankaranarayanan told the court that the recall application was independent of a separate curative petition. He also argued that a review petition should precede a curative petition.