Election Reforms
| Introduction | • Election commission act 2023 (Or)
• Supreme court judgement on Electoral Bonds 2024 (Or) • Successful completion of 18th Lok sabha elections 2024. |
| Issues in the present election system: | 1. Money power and muscle power
2. Criminalization of politics 3. Parochialism caused by caste, religion, race, religion language etc. 4. Misuse of government machinery during the election 5. Politicization of bureaucracy. 6. Alluring the voters. 7. Crony capitalism 8. Freebees 9. Paid news 10. High frequency of elections. 11. Independence of Election commission is doubtful. 12. Absence of internal party democracy. |
| Significance of election reforms | 1. Equal access of political rights to all
2. Eliminates parochial politics 3. Expanding the voter choice. 4. Cleansing the political process 5. Democratizing the election system. 6. Free and fair elections 7. Improving the voter participation. 8. Improves accountability and transparency in election process. |
| Who is responsible for the election reforms?
1. Parliament 2. Judiciary 3. Election commission |
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| Role of Parliament: | Enacting the laws –
1. 1950 Representation of Peoples’ Act 2. 1951 Representation of Peoples’ Act 3. 1952 Presidential and vice-presidential Act. 4. The Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service And Term of Office) Act, 2023 These acts are amended from time to time. |
| Role of the Judiciary: | Reforming the election practices through –
a. Judicial review b. Public Interest Litigation c. Civil Appeals |
| Key reforms suggested by the supreme court in various cases | |
| Association for Democratic Reforms vs. Union of India 2002: | • Candidates contesting the elections have to submit an affidavit at the time of filling the nominations. |
| Ramesh Dalal Vs UoI 2005:
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• The members of legislature shall also subject to disqualification if on the day of filling his nomination paper he stands convicted in the court of law. |
| Lily Thomas vs. Union of India case 2013: | • Supreme court prohibited the persons convicted with a sentence of 2 or more years from contesting the elections. |
| People’s Union for Civil Liberties vs Union of India, 2014: | • NOTA was introduced
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| Public Interest Foundation vs. Union of India case 2015: | • Special courts should be established in every state for the quick disposal of the criminal cases.
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| Public Interest Foundation vs. Union of India case 2018 | • The court said that, the Parliament has to enact a law under article 102 (1) (e) to disqualify the tainted politician from entering in to politics. |
| Anup Bharanwal vs. UoI case 2023 | • A high power committee has to be constituted to select the election commissioners. The committee should comprise of –
a. PM b. LoP c. CJI |
| Ashwini Kumar Upadhyaya vs. Union of India 2023 | • Guidelines for speedy disposal of the cases against the tainted politicians. |
| ADR vs. UoI 2024 | • Electoral Bonds declared unconstitutional. |
| Role of Election commission with the support of executive | |
| 1. Replacing the multiple ballot boxes with single boxes.
2. Enforcing the code of conduct 3. Reducing the voting age from 21 to 18 (61st Amendment 1989) 4. EVMs 5. VVPTs 6. Allotment of air time |
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| Committees on Election reforms | 1. Tarkunde Committee (1974)
2. Jaya Prakash Narayan Committee (1974) 3. Goswami Committee on Electoral Reforms (1990) 4. Vohra Committee Report (1993) 5. Indrajit Gupta Committee on State Funding of Elections (1998) 6. Law Commission Report on Reform of the Electoral Laws (1999) 7. National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (2001) 8. Election Commission of India – Proposed Electoral Reforms(2004) 9. Jeevan Reddy Committee (2004) 10. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (2008) 11. High power committee on Simultaneous elections headed by Sri Ram Nath Kovind. 2024 |
| Further reforms | 1. State funding of elections
2. Mobile voting 3. Decriminalising politics 4. Right to Reject 5. Recall 6. Simultaneous elections 7. Proportional system of election 8. Implementing the women quota. 9. Other election commissioners should be removed on par with the CEC. 10. Independent budget for the election commission 11. fostering a democratic culture from the school |
| Conclusion | Election reforms is a continuous effort. |