New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday (July 30) asked “should there be no show of fairness” in the process followed for the selection of the chief election commissioner (CEC).A bench of Justices Dipankar Dutta and SC. Sharma made the comments while hearing petitions challenging the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, which provides for their selection by the three-member panel involving the prime minister of India, a cabinet minister and the leader of opposition, reported Indian Express.“Now, we are not dealing with a case of appointment of a minister as such. We find the minister is already there. Now, it’s time for the PM to select one of his Cabinet members. It becomes 2:1, two on the side of the Cabinet, one on the side of the Opposition,” said Justice Datta.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Union government, defended the law and said that it would be wrong to assume that the prime minister and the minister would “not act in the interest of democracy” because they have a “numerical majority” in the selection procedure.Mehta submitted that the moment the court says because there is two versus one, the judges are expressing a potential lack of faith.“…Not lack of faith… Election Commissioner has to be an independent person. Who is selecting him? We find that yes, a committee framed under a law under Article 324 is selecting him. But should that committee not consist of persons… should there be no show of fairness? We are not saying that no fairness is being achieved by this committee. Just like justice is not only to be done, it has to be shown to be done, we are on that second part,” Justice Datta said.Mehta said that the matter involves questions of constitutional importance and urged the court to refer the matter to a five-judge Constitution Bench.“This needs examination by a larger bench, why independence is being talked about of only one office, and why only one organ can be trusted and others cannot be,” said Mehta.The bench reserved its decision on this request.The 2023 Act has replaced the Chief Justice of India (CJI) from the panel that selects the CEC with a minister appointed by the prime minister.Earlier, the panel consisted of the prime minister, the leader of opposition and the CJI. This system flowed from a constitution bench ruling in Anoop Baranwal v. Union of India, which laid down the process for the selection of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) until parliament enacted a law to this end.The petitioners in the present case have argued that the 2023 Act gave undue advantage to the executive and undermined the independence of the election commission.