The Election Commission on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the poll body be made the rule-making authority, instead of the Centre, to empower it to make election-related guidelines as well as the Model Code of Conduct. The Election Commission, in an affidavit, said the Article 324(5) of the Constitution should be amended so that the poll body remains “insulated from political pressure”, News18 reported.

The affidavit was filed in response to a petition filed by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking more power to the poll body and more protection for the election commissioners. He said while the chief election commissioner enjoys the same protection as a Supreme Court judge, the two election commissioners enjoy no such protection.

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“The Election Commission of India cannot function independently until the Chief Election Commission and the election commissioners are protected similarly, its expenditure is charged as consolidated fund and has an independent secretariat and rule-making authority,” Live Law quoted from Upadhyay’s petition.

The Election Commission said it had sent a proposal to the Centre in 1998 for an amendment to Article 324 to provide more protection to the election commissioners. The poll body said it had reiterated the proposal in 2004 and 2016.

Supporting Upadhyay’s petition, the poll panel said it had also approached the Centre with its proposal for an independent secretariat for the Election Commission on the lines of the Lok Sabha secretariat. It said a changed budget would be a symbol of the independence of the commission and “will secure its unconstrained functioning”, News18 reported.

In February, the poll-monitoring body proposed to be given the power the deregister political parties. A decision to bar people from contesting polls for severe crimes would “go a long way in cleansing the political establishment from the influence of criminal elements and protecting the sanctity of the legislative houses”, it had told the Supreme Court.