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Informist, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024

NEW DELHI – The government will introduce in the Lower House of Parliament on Tuesday a constitutional amendment bill for holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies. The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024 and The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, will be introduced by Union Law Minister (independent charge) Arjun Ram Meghwal in the Lower House, as per the list of business for Tuesday. The constitutional amendment bill is likely to be referred to a joint parliamentary committee for wider consultations.

The bill proposes to introduce a new Article 82A for holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and all legislative assemblies. It also proposes to amend Article 83 (Duration of Houses of Parliament), article 172 (Duration of State Legislatures) and article 327 (Power of Parliament to make provision with respect to elections to Legislatures).

The bill provides that after its enactment, a notification is to be issued by the president on the date of the first sitting of the Lok Sabha after a General Election, and that date of the notification shall be called the appointed date.

"The tenure of the House of the People shall be five years from that appointed date. The tenure of all Assemblies, constituted by elections to the Legislative Assemblies after the appointed date and before the expiry of the full term of the House of the People, shall come to an end at the expiry of the full term of the House of the People," the Statement of Objects and Reasons reads.

Following this, the elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies will be held together. In case of dissolution of the Lok Sabha or an assembly prior to the completion of the full term, elections will be held for the unexpired term. The unexpired term refers to the period between the date of dissolution of the Lok Sabha or state assembly and five years from the date of first meeting.

The Union Cabinet on Thursday cleared the bill to amend the Constitution to allow simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

The government asserted that there is an imperative need for holding simultaneous polls, stating that the elections have become expensive and time consuming. "The imposition of a Model Code of Conduct in several parts of the country which are poll bound put on hold the entire development programmes and cause disruption of normal public life. It also impacts the functioning of services and also curtails the involvement of manpower from their core activities for deployment for prolonged periods for election duties," Meghwal said in the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the bill.

It also stated that the General Elections to the House of the People and all state assemblies were held simultaneously in the years 1951-52, 1957, 1962 and 1967. However, due to premature dissolution of some legislative assemblies in 1968 and 1969, the cycle of holding polls simultaneously with the House of the People got disrupted, the Statement of Objects and Reasons reads.

In September 2023, the government constituted a high-level committee under the chairmanship of former president Ram Nath Kovind to examine the issue of simultaneous elections and make recommendations for the same. The committee in its report submitted to the president in March recommended that the elections to the House of People and the legislative assemblies should be held simultaneously.

"For implementation of the recommendations of the High Level Committee, a Bill, namely, the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024 is proposed providing for the holding of simultaneous elections to the House of People and all Legislative Assemblies," the Statement of Objects and Reasons reads.

The government also cited the 170th report on reform of the electoral laws by the Law Commission of India and another report by the parliamentary committee which recommended simultaneous polls. End

Reported by Kuldeep Singh

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

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