“Election commission is an independent and powerful body.’’ In the light of this statement explain the composition and powers of the Election Commission.

(a) Composition : The Chief Election Commissioner is appointed by the president of
India. But once appointed, the Chief Election Commissioner is not answerable to the president, or the government. It is virtually impossible for the government to remove the CEC.
(b) Powers of the Election Commission: The Election Commission has wide-ranging
powers as mentioned below :
(i) EC takes decisions on every aspect of conduct and control of elections.
(ii) lt implements the Code of Conduct and punishes any candidates or party that violates it.
(iii) During the election period, the EC can order the government to follow some guidelines, to prevent use and misuse of governmental power to enhance its chances to win elections. or to transfer some government officials.
(iv) When on election duty-, government officers work under the control of the EC and not the government.
(c) Estimate: (i) The Election Commission has been given wide-ranging powers so that it may conduct the elections in a fair and free manner and no political party not even the ruling party may influence its working.
(ii) It is good for democracy to make Election Commission powerful so that it may work independently.
(iii) The experience of last fifty years or so has proved that the Election Commission has worked successfully. It has reprimanded the government on many occasions and ordered repoll too. The ruling party sometimes do not like the decisions of the commission but they have no choice but to obey the decisions due to independence of the commission.