New Delhi: The one nation, one election model is a threat designed to centralise power and silence state voices, former Law Commission of India chairperson Justice A.P. Shah said Saturday, in a sharp critique of simultaneous elections.
He was speaking about the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, which seeks to amend the Constitution to conduct elections for Lok Sabha and all State Assemblies together.
Justice Shah said that if the bill gets enacted into law, it can change how we define and understand democracy and elections in India.
“Even if we assume that simultaneous elections are a good idea, the mechanism proposed in the current bill is hugely problematic. It is completely unconstitutional and snowballs into distortions that would impact the voters, the elected representatives as well as the quality of governance, and the relationship between these actors,” he added, pointing out that to synchronise elections for the Lok Sabha and all assemblies every five years, a fresh election will be held for only the remainder of the five-year term in case a Lok Sabha or state/UT assembly is dissolved earlier than its full term of five years.
The former judge was speaking virtually at the conclave on ‘One Nation-One Election, Federalism and Citizenship’, organised at the Constitution Club in Delhi.
The conclave was organised jointly by the Constitutional Conduct Group and the Group on Federalism & Elections. Also at the conclave were former Home Secretary Gopal Pillai, former Chief Election Commissioner S. Y. Quraishi, former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, former chairman of the Law Commission of India Justice A. P. Shah, political scientist Niraja Jayal, and transparency advocate Anjali Bhardwaj, among others.
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‘Unfettered and arbitrary discretion’
Justice Shah asserted that a big part of the bill pertained to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) powers, because it empowers the ECI to defer elections to any state assembly if it opines that the election for the particular assembly cannot be held as part of simultaneous elections.
“No guidance is offered for this, and the Election Commission essentially has arbitrary and unfettered discretion to do as it pleases, completely against the principles of the Constitution,” he asserted.
The former Delhi High Court Chief Justice pointed out that the government has an effective veto in making appointments to the ECI.
“Thus, granting such unfettered power to the commission would be ill-advised,” he said. “The Election Commission acts like a referee or an umpire and the office of the Election Commission should inspire confidence in the government and opposition alike. If the office itself comes into disrepute as it is, it can be clearly seen it is devalued, because of the actions of those who occupied it. In such a scenario, can this office be trusted to carry out momentous and far-reaching exercises such as the SIR?”
Justice Shah urged the attendees to consider the “distinct possibility” that simultaneous elections start, but “the government in power is not sure about certain assemblies”.
“The Election Commission, at their behest, can postpone or defer the elections for this legislative assembly… the Election Commission can give any plausible reason and you know if you take the matter to court, what is the fate of such petitions. So, you can clearly distort the whole scheme of simultaneous elections,” he said, adding that “it would be a great opportunity for those in power to manipulate the election results”.
‘Federalism must endure’
Justice Shah called for protection of the federal compact, asserting: “Federalism must endure. To abandon it would mean to pay a steep price, including, among others, a fractured Union, weakened democratic accountability and betrayal of our constitutional spirit.”
The bill, he said, strikes at two basic Constitution features—the republican and democratic form of government and its federal character.
In his address, Quraishi agreed with Justice Shah, asserting that frequent elections allow accountability.
He referred to the popular satirical proverb, “Jab chunav aata hai, gareeb ki thaali mein pulav aata hai (when elections arrive, food appears on a poor man’s plate)”.
Quraishi also pointed out that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of simultaneous elections at all levels of governance, including local body elections, the bill does not talk about local body elections anymore.
“You have left them aside. Now, who are you talking about? 4,120 MLAs (in all assemblies) and 543 MPs. So then, so much determination for this much of dilution,” he said.
Quraishi referred to other reasons provided for simultaneous elections as well, including elections becoming expensive and time-consuming, and disrupting governance.
“Suppose Vidhan Sabha is dissolved, there will be another election for the remainder of the period. So where is the reduction of polls? This becomes an extrapolation. And then that poll with all the expenditure, all policy paralysis, only for two years… so will it really be reducing the expenditure and the work paralysis? Not at all,” he said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)