The Chief Justice withdraws from legal arguments on the employment of poll workers.

Sanjiv Khanna, the Chief Justice of India, resigned on Tuesday from hearing arguments against the legality of the statute that removed him from the committee responsible for selecting the Chief Election Commissioner and other election commissioners.The Chief Justice, who shared the bench with Justice Sanjay Kumar, informed the petitioners' attorneys that he was unable to hear their plea. "List the matter before a bench of which I am not a part of," he stated.He said that the matter will be heard after the winter break and would be reallocated to a separate bench, excluding the Chief Justice. During that time, the Chief Justice also instructed the Center and other parties to submit answers to the petition.In their representation of the petitioners, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan and attorney Prashant Bhushan stated that the previous bench, which was led by Justice Khanna, who had not yet been promoted to the position of Chief Justice, had issued interim orders in the case back in March.

Notably, the Chief Justice of India was not allowed to serve on the committee that appointed the chief election commissioner (CEC) and other election commissioners as a result of the Election Commissioners' Act, which was approved in December 2023. The Prime Minister, a Cabinet Minister, and the Leader of the Opposition currently make up the appointment panel.A number of individuals, notably the Association for Democratic Reforms and Congressman Jaya Thakur, contested the legality of Section 7 of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, and requested a halt to its implementation. A different Supreme Court bench, consisting of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, had earlier in March declined to halt the new law's implementation of the appointment of new Election Commissioners (ECs).