New Delhi: Noted jurist Fali Nariman on Monday said he was of the view that Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami did not have the suo motu power to recommend the removal of his colleague Navin Chawla.
"It is a grey area but to my mind I don't think that he has the power to suo-motu to take any action," he told said.
He said that there was no clarity in the Constitution whether the CEC had suo motu power to recommend removal of an Election Commissioner. The Supreme Court has left the issue open two years ago, he felt.
On Chawla's likely appointment as the next CEC, Nariman said he had no right to become the next CEC automatically on the retirement of the incumbent. However, it was upto the government to take a decision.
The fact that they had kept on appointing the senior-most person was only a matter of practice and not a matter of law or Constitution, he said.
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