7 Dec 2021
Neta·ResumeAppointed Election Commissioner by the President on 31 Aug 2017 (Ministry of Law & Justice announcement) and took over as CEC on 2 Dec 2018 on the retirement of O.P. Rawat, as the senior Election Commissioner. No selection committee existed then. Before the 2023 Act there was no statute on selection: the Union government, by convention, picked senior serving or retired Secretary-rank officers and the President appointed on its advice, with the senior-most EC normally elevated to CEC (as described by the Supreme Court in Anoop Baranwal, 2 Mar 2023).
source ↗Education: B.A. (Hons) and M.A. in English, Panjab University (Hoshiarpur) - per ECI profile
During the West Bengal assembly election, the Commission barred Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from campaigning from 8 pm on 12 April to 8 pm on 13 April 2021. It cited her 7 April appeal to Muslim voters not to split their vote and her 8 April remarks about central forces. It called her handwritten reply factually incorrect and without evidence.
Banerjee held a dharna in protest against the order.