Supreme Court of India. File. | Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA The Supreme Court on Thursday (May 7, 2026) asked if there had been a “proper debate” in the Parliament about the “ethos” of its 2023 judgment that took the appointment of members of the Election Commission of India out of the exclusive hands of the political executive, namely, “the party which not unnaturally has an interest in perpetuating itself in power”. In a 2023 judgment in Anoop Baranwal versus Union of India, a Constitution Bench of the court had replaced the mechanism of the President appointing the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners on the sole advice of the Prime Minister with a more participatory appointment process involving a three-member selection committee of the Prime Minister, the Opposition Leader in the Lok Sabha, and the Chief Justice of India. The court had said the committee would be in place till the Parliament brought in a law to replace it. The Union government had reacted to that judgment within months, by bringing in a law …