Update (15 March 2024): The President of India has appointed Gyanesh Kumar, IAS(Retd.) and Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, IAS(Retd.) as Election Commissioners in the Election Commission of India on 14 March 2024.
A post featuring a gazette notification claiming that Dr. Rajesh Kumar Gupta (retd IAS) and Shri. Priyansh Sharma (retd IAS) are appointed to the Election Commission of India (ECI) is being shared on social media. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Dr. Rajesh Kumar Gupta (retd IAS) and Shri. Priyansh Sharma (retd IAS) were appointed to the Election Commission of India as Election Commissioners.
Fact: The Government of India has not officially announced the appointment of Dr. Rajesh Kumar Gupta (retd IAS) and Shri. Priyansh Sharma (retd IAS) as the two election commissioners to the Election Commission of India. PIB Fact Check has confirmed that the gazette notification circulating on social media is fake. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On performing a relevant keyword search regarding the claim, we did not find any official announcements or gazette indicating that the Government of India appointed two election commissioners to the ECI.
Subsequent research led us to a post on X by the PIB Fact Check stating that this news is fake and that the government did not issue such a Gazette.
This situation came up following Election Commissioner Arun Goel’s resignation and the news that Prime Minister Narendra Modi led panel planning to appoint new Election Commission members by 15 March 2024. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Dr. Jaya Thakur have urged the government to appoint the new Election Commission members, following the guidelines set by the Anoop Baranwal vs. Union of India case. This case states that the President should appoint the chief election commissioner and election commissioners based on recommendations from a committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and the Chief Justice of India. However, a new law, The Chief Election Commission, and other Election Commissions (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, has replaced the Chief Justice of India with a Cabinet Minister on the committee. The petitioners are asking for the Chief Justice of India to be reinstated on the committee. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the petitions on 15 March 2024.
In the meanwhile, media has reported that the PM-led committee picked retired IAS officers Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu as the new Election Commissioners on 14 March 2024.
To sum up, viral Gazette Notification claiming that the Government of India appointed Rajesh Kumar Gupta and Priyansh Sharma as Election Commissioners is Fake.
