SC Justice Joseph recuses from hearing plea challenging appointment of Arun Goel as EC

New Delhi: Supreme Court judge Justice KM Joseph on Monday recused from hearing a plea challenging appointment of Arun Goel as Election Commissioner.

The matter was listed before a bench of Justices Joseph and BV Nagarathna. After a brief hearing, Justice Joseph rescued from hearing the case and ordered that matter be listed before a bench of which he is not a member.
During the hearing, the bench questioned NGO 'Association for Democratic Reforms' for challenging Goel's appointment and asked it to show which rules were violated.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for the NGO submitted that he responded by proposing that the appointment was done arbitrarily and the whole process was malafide.
He said the selection process adopted by the government was questionable.
The plea said that there were 160 officers who belonged to the 1985 batch and some of them were younger than Goel.

"However, without any explanation as to why the officers who were younger in age than Goel and who would have a full tenure of six years as mandated by Section 4 of the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991 were not empanelled, the government appointed Goel as Election Commissioner," it added.
Former bureaucrat and a former IAS officer of the Punjab cadre, Arun Goel assumed charge as the new Election Commissioner of India in November last year. (ANI)