The chief election commissioner does not have overruling powers and any decision is taken by the opinion of the majority among the three.

However, the CEC retires from office if he/she attains the age of sixty-five years before the expiry of the term.

[4] While the office has always been an important one in the machinery of the Indian political process, it gained significant public attention during the tenure of T.N.

[16][17] In June 2012, former Deputy Prime Minister of India and former Leader of the Opposition in Indian Parliament), Lal Krishna Advani suggested that appointment of CEC (as well as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)) should be made by a bipartisan collegium consisting of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice, the Law Minister and the Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

[18][19] As per Advani, the demand was to remove any impression of bias or lack of transparency and fairness because the existent system was open to manipulation and partisanship.