Sushil Chandra assumes charge as Chief Election Commissioner
New Delhi: Sushil Chandra assumed charge as the 24th Chief Election Commissioner on Tuesday. Chandra was appointed as the CEC on Monday, the day Sunil Arora demitted office.
Chandra was appointed as an election commissioner on February 14, 2019, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. He would demit office on May 14, 2022.
Under him, the Election Commission (EC) will hold assembly polls in Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
The term of the assemblies of Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Punjab ends on various dates in March next year.
The term of the Uttar Pradesh assembly ends on May 14 next year.Chandra belongs to the 1980 batch of the Indian Revenue Service.
He is also an ex-officio member of the Delimitation Commission since February 18, 2020 looking after the process in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Having held several posts in the Income Tax Department for nearly 39 years, Chandra was appointed the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman on November 1, 2016.
He spent considerable time as Director of Investigation and Director General of Investigation, Mumbai and Gujarat, respectively followed by his stint as Member (Investigation), CBDT and thereafter assuming the post of Chairman of this apex body.
"Transparency and purity of political finance are of vital importance for free and fair electoral process and the creation of a level playing field. Continuing the crusade that he started as CBDT Chairman against the menace of black money, Chandra was proactive as the erstwhile Election Commissioner in curbing the use of money power that vitiates the electoral process," the Commission said on Tuesday.
He has constantly emphasised the concept of "inducement-free" elections and it has become an integral dimension of monitoring the electoral process in all ongoing and forthcoming elections, the EC said.
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Time has come to decriminalise defamation law: Supreme Court
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court has observed that the time has come to decriminalise the defamation law, while agreeing to examine a plea by the Foundation for Independent Journalism seeking to quash the summons issued to it in a criminal defamation case.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma issued notice to former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) professor Amita Singh.
The apex court passed the remark while hearing the plea of the organisation, which runs The Wire news portal, and its political affairs editor Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta.
"I think time has come to decriminalise all this..." Justice Sundresh observed orally.
The top court was hearing a plea challenging a trial court order issuing summons to them in a defamation case filed by the former JNU professor over the publication of the dossier.
The complainant had argued before the lower court that the accused people had launched a hate campaign against her to malign her reputation.
This is the second round of litigation on the alleged defamatory report published by the portal.
The Delhi High Court in 2023 had quashed the summons issued to them. The top court, however, reversed the order and remanded the matter for fresh consideration before the trial court.
The trial court again issued a summons, and the high court also upheld it.
