Election Commissioners of India

Election Commissioners of India

The Chief Election Commissioner heads the Election Commission of India, a body constitutionally empowered to conduct free and fair elections to the national and state legislatures. He is usually a member of the Indian Civil Service and mostly from the Indian Administrative Service.

The President of India appoints the Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners. They have tenure of six years, or up to the age of 65 years. The Chief Election Commissioner can be removed from office only through impeachment by Parliament in a manner similar to that of a judge of the Supreme Court. On the other hand, other Election Commissioners can be removed by the President on recommendation of the Chief Election Commissioner.

List of Chief Election Commissioners of India:

S No. Name Office Tenure
1. Sukumar Sen 21 March 1950-19 December 1958
2. K.V.K. Sundaram 20 December 1958-30 September 1967
3. S.P. Sen Verma 1 October 1967-30 September 1972
4. Dr Nagendra Singh 1 October 1972-6 February 1973
5. T. Swaminathan 7 February 1973-17 June 1977
6. S.L. Shakdhar 18 June 1977-17 June 1982
7. R.K. Trivedi 18 June 1982-31 December 1985
8. R.V.S. Peri Sastri 1 January 1986-25 November 1990
9. Smt V.S. Rama Devi 15 November 1990 to 12 December 1990
10. T.N. Seshan 12 December 1990-11 December 1996(on leave vacancy of R.V.S. Peri Sastri)
11. M.S. Gill 12 December 1996 - 13 June 2001
12. J.M. Lyngdoh 14 June 2001 - 7 February 2004
13. T.S. Krishna Murthy 8 February 2004 - 15 May 2005
14. B.B. Tandon 16 May 2005 to 29 June 2006
15. N. Gopalaswami 30 June 2006 to 20 April 2009
16. Navin Chawla 21 April 2009 to 29 July 2010
17. S. Y. Quraishi 30 July 2010 to 10 June 2012 
18. V. S. Sampath 11 June 2012 to 15 Jan 2015 
19. Harishankar Bramha 15 January 2015 - till date

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