The Supreme Court on Friday declined to stay the appointments of Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, NDTV reported.

The court also refused to stay the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, under which the two officials were appointed.

A bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna said that generally, it does not stay a law through an interim order. The case will be heard next on March 21.

The law, which was passed by Parliament in December, has been criticised for excluding the chief justice of India from a panel tasked with selecting the election commissioners. Instead of the chief justice, a Union Cabinet minister nominated by the prime minister will be part of the committee.

On Thursday, a selection committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed Sandhu and Kumar as the new Election Commissioners. The appointments were made to fill the vacancies created after the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey in February and the resignation of Arun Goel on Saturday.

The selection committee is headed by the prime minister and also comprises the leader of Opposition or the leader of the single-largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha and a Union cabinet minister nominated by the prime minister.

The composition of the panel means that the government enjoys a 2-1 majority over Chowdhury, the Leader of Opposition, if there is a difference of opinion.

The new law to appoint election commissioners did away with an arrangement put in place by a Supreme Court judgement in March 2023 that had formed a selection committee consisting of the prime minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India. The court had said that this committee would remain operative until Parliament came up with a law for the appointment of election commissioners.

The Supreme Court-mandated selection committee had been formed to shield the Election Commission from executive influence. Before this judgement, appointments to the commission were made at the sole discretion of the Centre.

The new law, by replacing the chief justice with a Cabinet minister, has brought the selection of election commissioners back under the Centre’s control.