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Informist, Friday, Jul. 11, 2025

NEW DELHI – Former chief justices of India J.S. Khehar and D.Y. Chandrachud Friday raised concern over imprudent power given to the Election Commission of India under the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, designed to enable holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies, sources said.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee set up to deliberate on the bill, along with the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, met to interact with legal and constitutional experts. At the meeting, both the former chief justices pointed to the proposed Article 82A sub-section 5 and said the article conferred unbridled powers on the poll panel for holding elections to legislative assemblies, the sources said. Justice Chandrachud, sources said, gave example of Jammu and Kashmir, without naming it, where assembly elections were conducted after 10 years. He said that while the Lok Sabha elections were held as per the schedule, the assembly elections were delayed in the Union territory.

The proposed amendment states that if the election commission is of the view that elections to a legislative assembly cannot be conducted along with the general election to the House of the People, it can recommend to the president to declare that the election to that assembly may be conducted later.

On the Constitutionality of the bills, Justices Khehar and Chandrachud said that there are some grey areas and recommended the committee to address them while passing the bills in Parliament, sources said. While the bills are largely under the ambit of Constitution, they may face judicial review if the grey areas are not addressed by the legislature, both the top judges told the committee.

The 'one nation one election' bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha in December and subsequently referred to the joint parliamentary committee for wider consultation. The Constitution amendment bill proposes to insert Article 82A to hold simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and all legislative assemblies. It also proposes to amend Article 83, which sets the duration of the Houses of Parliament, Article 172 on the duration of state legislatures, and Article 327 on the power of Parliament to make provisions with respect to elections to legislatures.

The bill provides that after its enactment, a notification will be issued by the president on the date of the first sitting of the Lok Sabha after a general election, and the date of that notification will be called the appointed date. "The tenure of the House of the People shall be five years from that appointed date," according to the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill. "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."

Following this, elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies will be held simultaneously. In case the Lok Sabha or an assembly is dissolved prior to the completion of its full term, elections will be held only for the remainder of the term.  End

Reported by Kuldeep Singh

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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