Caretaker governments may be stopped from announcing policies to woo voters

Headquarters of the Election Commission of India in New Delhi | Manisha Mondal/ ThePrint

Election Commission is considering imposing model code of conduct as soon as an assembly is dissolved & not wait for poll announcement.

New Delhi: Governments which prematurely dissolve state assemblies and call early elections may soon be stopped from announcing any major policy decisions after doing so.

According to the model code of conduct, governments cannot announce or make promises of any projects or schemes — but only from the day the Election Commission announces the elections.

Now, the Election Commission is considering barring governments from making such announcements from the time an assembly is dissolved, even before the model code of conduct comes into force, ThePrint has learnt.

The move is expected to affect all political parties, especially the BJP, which is leading a campaign to hold simultaneous elections by ending the terms of some state assemblies ahead of schedule.

However, its most immediate impact could be felt by Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

Earlier this month, Rao dissolved the state assembly to seek a fresh mandate, apparently to avoid possible clubbing of the state polls with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The assembly elections are now expected to be held later this year, along with polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.

The Bommai judgment

The poll panel’s decision could be guided by the historic 1994 Bommai judgment, which put severe restrictions on the arbitrary dismissal of state governments under Article 356.

An observation in the judgment quoted a recommendation by the Sarkaria Commission to argue that from the time the assembly is dissolved, no major policy decisions should be announced by the “caretaker government”.

“During the interim period, the caretaker government should be allowed to function,” the judgment said. “As a matter of convention, the caretaker government should merely carry on the day-to-day government and desist from taking any major policy decision.”

While this part of the judgment has not been used so far to actually stop interim governments from announcing policy decisions, the Election Commission may use it to proactively put an end to the practice, ThePrint has learnt.