New Delhi, Sept. 23 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday, September 23, delivered a split verdict on whether a batch of petitions challenging the 2023 law on the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs) should be referred to a larger five-judge Constitution Bench.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra initially disagreed on the issue but ultimately agreed that the matter should be referred to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant to constitute a Constitution Bench of adequate strength.

The court noted that referring the issue to a larger bench to determine whether a Constitution Bench is needed would unnecessarily delay the proceedings. The bench noted that sending the issue to a lar...