REUTERS, New Delhi

India’s top court yesterday ordered the setting up of a bipartisan panel that will include the prime minister and the chief justice to select the country’s election commissioners, ending a practice of the government effectively choosing them.

The Election Commission of India is an autonomous constitutional authority but opposition parties have regularly accused it of caving into the demands of the ruling party, a charge it has denied.

The new panel will also include the leader of the opposition in the lower house of parliament or the opposition party with the highest number of members in the house. “This norm will continue to hold good till a law is made by parliament,” said Justice K.M. Joseph, delivering the order of a constitution bench that heard several petitions calling for an independent committee to appoint election commissioners.

Prashant Bhushan, a lawyer representing the petitioners, termed the judgment “historic”.