Law panel may recommend holding simultaneous polls

Commission may suggest it can be done with complete political consensus

NEWDELHI: In its report on holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections in the country, the Law Commission is likely to suggest that the idea can be implemented partially from the 2019 general election, provided there is complete “political consensus”, a top official of the panel said on Wednesday.

A meeting of the full Law Commission — comprising the chairman, two full-time and three parttime members — will be held on April 17 to discuss three important issues: Simultaneous polls, revisiting the definition of contempt (under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971) and bringing the Board for Control of Cricket in India under the ambit of the Right to Information Act that applies to public bodies, the official said.

The Commission’s working draft on holding simultaneous elections throughout the country has suggested that states in which elections are to be held till 2021 can go for polls along with the Lok Sabha in 2019 while the rest can be clubbed together with the next general election expected in 2024. The panel has undertaken the exercise without a reference from the government or the Supreme Court, the official said.

Commission chairman Justice BS Chauhan said the panel would steer clear of discussing the political issues involved. “We are only examining the issue legally. The Commission will discuss the proposals on the table in its meeting next week. There could be a change in the working draft,” he said.

Preliminary discussions within the Commission have veered towards recommending the need for “ensuring political consensus” before moving ahead on parallel polls, an official privy to the ongoing exercise said.

“Achieving political consensus is the main issue. Both the Constitution and the Representation of People Act will have to be amended. While the terms of the existing assemblies can be truncated, there is no provision in the Constitution to increase the term of an assembly. Parliament will have to legislate on that,” he said. “There are other issues like arranging the requisite number of electronic voting machines and VVPATs for such a large exercise,” he added.

The Narendra Modi government has been keen on holding simultaneous elections citing the election code of conduct as an impediment in development works and the expense involved in holding multiple assembly elections every year.

On Monday, chief election commissioner OP Rawat spoke in Indore about the need to amend the Constitution to hold simultaneous polls.

“The government sought the Election Commission’s (EC) opinion in 2015 on holding the elections to the Lok Sabha, assemblies and other bodies together. We sent a detailed reply to the government, telling them that the system would require amendments in the relevant paragraphs of the Constitution and certain sections of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Representation of the People Act, 1951,” Rawat said, addressing the foundation day function of the Indore Press Club.

Experts said one of the main criticisms of simultaneous elections is that it interferes with the federal structure of the Constitution and does not take into account the fact that governments do not always run their full term. “Political consensus is not achieved easily even if desirable simultaneous polls are not feasible,” former CEC SY Quraishi said.

On the Contempt of the Courts Act, the panel could suggest that the definition of contempt does not need revisiting.