New Delhi, May 22: The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Centre, the Election Commission and the chief election commissioner on a petition against retaining Naveen Chawla as election commissioner because of his alleged links with a particular political party.

A vacation bench headed by Justice Arijit Passayat also asked the Centre to submit the opinion of the attorney-general.

The court asked the parties to respond to the petition within four weeks.

In his PIL, BJP leader Jaswant Singh pointed out that 205 NDA MPs had submitted a representation seeking the removal of the 1969-batch IAS officer to the President, who had referred the matter to the government instead of seeking the opinion of the chief election commissioner.

Under Article 324 of the Constitution, it was mandatory to seek the opinion of the chief election commissioner with regard to the removal of an election commissioner, Singh submitted. The government instead relied on the opinion of the attorney-general, he said.

Singh said referring the memorandum to the attorney-general instead of the chief election commissioner was unwarranted, arbitrary, unconstitutional and against the mandate of Article 324 of the Constitution.

Singh, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, asked the court to direct the government to refer the matter to chief election commissioner B.B. Tandon and seek his views on the desirability of retaining Chawla.

As the petitioner sought a direction to the chief election commissioner to submit his opinion before the court, the bench asked him to file a specific application in this regard.

With the chief election commissioner retiring by the end of next month, Singh could seek an early listing of the matter.

Chawla’s links with a particular party are established by the fact that several MPs had sanctioned funds to his family trusts from the local area development scheme, Singh said.