NEW DELHI — Defending a December 2023 law that successfully removed the Chief Justice of India from the committee that selects the nation's top election officials, government representatives assured the Supreme Court this week that the executive's newly engineered 2:1 voting majority is perfectly safe because the Prime Minister can be trusted.

The legislation, passed just months after a March 2023 Supreme Court judgment mandated a balanced panel of the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, and Chief Justice, replaced the judiciary's top official with a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister.

"It is wrong to assume that a panel consisting of the Prime Minister and a minister hand-picked by the Prime Minister would ever act against democracy," said an official, explaining the structural necessity of the executive outvoting the opposition on every single appointment.

When questioned by the bench on why the Chief Justice was explicitly removed from the process, representatives maintained that the swift legislative override was necessary to protect the selection process from excessive neutrality. "The court's stated principle is that justice must be shown to be done," a spokesperson noted. "By securing a guaranteed two-vote bloc, the executive has ensured that the appointments will absolutely be done."

The government further assured the court that the Election Commission's constitutional autonomy remains absolute, adding that the selection committee's executive majority looks forward to vigorously debating itself before unanimously approving its own preferred candidate.