“I mean to diminish no individual, institution or phase in our history when I say that India is valued the world over for a great many things, but for three over all others : The Taj Mahal; Mahatma Gandhi; and India’s electoral democracy.”
– Gopalkrishna Gandhi (2013)
India is the world’s largest electoral democracy with population 1.25 billion. There are different areas of menace and some of them were tackled through earlier efforts but some are still widespread in our democracy.Law Commission’s 255th report (submitted on March 13) is an attempt to do away with some of the remaining menaces.
Earlier ‘Clean Election’ attempts
- Issues like religion, caste, language and the like, using the bureaucracy, falsity of affidavits and so on are addressed through the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (Sections 123-126).
- Electoral ill practices like booth-capturing and election violence were dealt with by amendments in 1989 and 1996 (Section 135A).
- Lily Thomas (2013) case took care of ill practice of legislators convicted of offences continuing in office or fighting elections until their conviction was decided by the Supreme Court.
Now what is remaining? We addressed ‘Muscle power’ through policing, strict RPA and Model Code of Conduct. But ‘Money Power’ is still a hurdle to cross over.
Key recommendations and Analysis
Election Finance Reform
- It recommends that candidates account for contributions from the date of notification of elections — rather than just from the date of nomination — to the date of declaration of results.
- It also recommends that corporates contribute funds to political parties only through their annual general meetings.
- It should be mandatory for political parties to also disclose contributions less than Rs 20,000 if such contributions exceed Rs 20 crore or 20 per cent of the party’s total contributions, whichever is less.
- The commission has not favoured the demand for state funding of elections.
Analysis
- Limitation has been proposed by commission for political parties only, not for the candidates.
- In such situation, Corporate benefactors can influence the result by zooming in to supply funds for few selected candidates and can have unwarranted control over the party.
- The answer to the money power problem is not transparency alone, but also limits and consequential action.
- Today, India faces not just direct election goondaism, but also corporate takeover of elections at all levels. With the Law Commission rejecting state funding of elections, dealing with this should be a priority.
Inner Party Democracy
It proposed that Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act be amended and parties should insert in their memorandum to “shun violence for political gains, and avoid discrimination or distinction based on race, caste, creed, language or place of residence.
It recommended for empowering the ECI to de-register a party for failing to contest any Parliamentary or Legislative Assembly elections for ten consecutive years.
Analysis
But how do you enforce this? The failure to comply with these formal declaratory requirements would entail a daily fine of Rs 25,000. And the failure to hold elections for 10 consecutive years would result in the cancellation of registration by the Election Commission. But this is silly. A party dictator may not hold elections for nine years and then hold them in the 10th year, and then again in the 20th and so on.
Anti-defenction, Proportional Representation System and Contesting Election
- Anti-defection cases should be decided by the president or governor acting on the advice of the Election Commission. It needs amendments in Xth schedule of constitution.
- Law Commission is not in favour of proportional representation (which has created havoc in Nepal), compulsory voting or the right to reject and recall.
- It proposed amendments to Section 33(7) of the Representation of the People Act to limit the right to contest from two constituencies simultaneously — whether for the Upper or Lower House, assembly or by-election.
- It has sought amendments to Sections 4 and 5 of the Representation of the People Act to bar independent candidates from contesting election for Lok Sabha or assembly polls.
Analysis
- Shifting power under anti-defection law from Speaker to president or Governor would strengthen ECI.
- The commission’s suggestions that independent candidates be eliminated only strengthens party autocracy.
Media and Paid News
- The panel has proposed that “paying for news”, “receiving payment for news” and “political advertisement” should be clearly defined in the Representation of the People Act, and paid news should be made a penal offence.
- It suggested that government-sponsored advertisements cease during as well as six months before elections.
Analysis
Unexceptionable but the suggestion related to government-sponsored advertisements needs tweaking.
Other recommendations
- Election Commission of India: The commission also wants a three-member collegium comprising the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha (or leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha) and the Chief Justice of India to select the election commissioners. It has sought equal constitutional protection to all members of the ECI in matters of removability.
- Opinion polls: Commission has said the credentials of the organisation conducting the opinion poll should be make public along with the method in which the poll was conducted.
- Election benches: It has also recommended setting up one or more “election benches” in each high court to decide on election petitions in a time-bound manner.
The issue of electoral reform has produced the Goswami (1990), Vohra (1993), Gupta (1998), Law Commission (1999), National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (2001), Election Commission (2004) and Administrative Reforms Commission (2008) reports. They are an inconsistent lot. The present report of the Law Commission catalogues issues, travels to other countries and perfunctorily reviews the past. It is written in haste and half-baked.
Reports prepared by various committees and their recommendations for electoral reforms:
- The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (2007) – Click Here
- Election Commission of India – Proposed Electoral Reforms (2004) – Click Here
- National Commission to review the Working of the Constitution (2001) – Click Here
- Law Commission Report on Reform of the Electoral Laws (1999) – Click Here(A) Law Commission’ draft for amendments to the Representation of People Act, To download Click Here
- Vohra Committee Report (1993) – Click Here
- Indrajit Gupta Committee on State Funding of Elections (1998) – Click Here
- Goswami Committee on Electrol Reforms (1990) – Background Note
- Justice Verma Committee Report on Amendments to Criminal Law, 23rd January 2013 – ADR finds mention on pages (vii) and Pages 350, 351, 357, 359 and Pages 364 to 382. Chapter 13 (Page 340 onwards) of the report regarding Electoral Reforms is dedicated to ADR’s reports and concerns – Click Here
- 20th Law Commission’s 244th report on Electoral disqualification (2014) – Click Here
- 20th Law Commission’s 255th report on Electoral Reforms (2015) – Click Here