Days before LS polls announcement, Election Commissioner Arun Goel resigns

New Delhi: Election Commissioner Arun Goel resigned on Saturday, days before the expected announcement of the schedule for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

His tenure was till December 2027.

According to a law ministry notification, Goel's resignation has been accepted by President Droupadi Murmu with effect from Saturday. It was not immediately known why he stepped down.

Goel, a retired bureaucrat, was a 1985-batch IAS officer of the Punjab cadre. He had joined the Election Commission in November 2022.

Following the retirement of Anup Pandey in February and Goel's resignation, the three-member EC panel has now only Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.

The appontment of Goel was under the scanner of Supreme Court last year.

The constitution bench of the apex court had said it was mystified as to how Goel applied for voluntary retirement on November 18 last year, the day the approval was sought for appointment of an election commissioner, if he was not aware about the proposal to appoint him as one.

It had questioned the "haste" and "tearing hurry" with which the Centre appointed Goel as an election commissioner, saying his file travelled at "lightning speed" within departments in 24 hours.

The Centre had vehemently resisted the observations, with Attorney General R Venkataramani contending the whole issue pertaining to his appointment needed to be looked at in entirety.

The top court had asked how the Union law minister short-listed a panel of four names that was recommended to the prime minister for appointing an election commissioner when none of them would have completed the stipulated six-year tenure in office.