India's top court refuses to hold appointment of election commissioners

NEW DELHI, March 21 (Xinhua) -- India's top court Thursday once again refused to order a stay on the law to appoint election commissioners, saying that doing so at this stage would only lead to chaos.

The move came weeks ahead of elections in India.

"You can not say that the election commission is under the thumb of the executive. At this stage, we can not stay the legislation, and it will lead to only chaos and uncertainty," the court said.

The court noted there were no allegations against newly appointed election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar. The duo was picked after changes were made to the panel under the new law.

"There are no allegations against the persons who have been appointed," the court said. "Elections are around the corner. Balance of convenience is very important."

Last week, the court refused to stay the appointment of new election commissioners under the 2023 law, that excludes the chief justice of India from the committee.

India's general elections will be held in seven phases beginning next month.

According to India's Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, the elections will be held from April 19 to June 1 and counting of votes is scheduled on June 4.

Officials said nearly 970 million people are expected to cast their votes at over a million polling stations in the elections.