The second letter to the President of India by CEC N. Gopalaswami on January 16th 2009, deals with the selection procedure of the CEC and ECs. The text of the letter is reproduced below:

The appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners is governed by the provisions of Article 324 of the Constitution. As there is no separate law nor any prescribed procedure, in the scheme of things currently in force, the CEC and ECs are appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister.

I have given my anxious thought to this issue of the procedure of selection of CECs and ECs. I have carefully perused debates in the Constituent Assembly where Pandit Hirday Nath Kunzru and Prof. Shibban Lal Saksena spoke eloquently on the need to appoint a person as CEC or EC who commands confidence of a majority of both Houses of Parliament. In principle, one could say that the person appointed should be such as to be acceptable and should have the confidence of a cross section of the Parliament or the political spectrum. In the last 60 years after independence, our polity has undergone a lot of changes and from the days of one party dominance we are passing through an era of coalition governments. Any alternative arrangement has to keep this fact in view.

Presently, the appointments to the post of the Central Vigilance Commissioner and that of the chairman and the member of the National Human Rights Commission are made by constituting a committee which is bipartisan. In the case of appointment of the CVC, the leader of the opposition in the House of the People is a member of the selection committee. In the case of the appointment to the NHRC, the leader of the opposition of both Houses of Parliament are members of the selection committee with the committee being presided over by the prime minister. The following is the composition of the committee for the appointment of the Central Vigilance Commissioner and the Vigilance Commissioner :

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