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Is this India’s ‘Amrit Kal’? As state polls go on, we must trace Representation of People Act

The elections in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur are also ‘a mid-point referendum’ on the Narendra Modi government.

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The polling process to elect legislators for the assemblies of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur started has begun. Naturally, there is no dearth of news, views, commentaries, interviews, advertisements and paid news in all newspapers, TV channels, and digital platforms, especially as these elections are also a ‘mid-point referendum’ on the Narendra Modi-led NDA government. However, the focus of this column is on documenting the timeline of laws and practises related to the conduct of elections in India.

Universal adult franchise

The idea of universal adult franchise can be traced to the Motilal Nehru report of August 1928. This was the time when many countries in Europe had still not extended the right to vote to women. It was enshrined in  Article 326 of the Indian Constitution. And Article 324 created the Election Commission (EC) and empowered it with ‘power of superintendence, direction and control of elections to parliament, state legislatures, the office of president of India and the office of vice-president of India’. Article 325 stipulated that ‘no person shall be ineligible for inclusion in the electoral rolls on grounds of religion, race, sex or caste’.

While these three Articles laid down the broad principles, the actual process was defined by the Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1950 and the Representation of the People Act, 1951. While the 1950 Act provided for the delimitation of constituencies, allocation of seats in Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies and disqualifications of voters, the 1951 Act laid down the procedure. It stipulated the appointment of a chief electoral officer for each state with the consultation of the state government. Most importantly, it barred civil courts from questioning the legality of any action of electoral registration officer regarding revision of the electoral roll.


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The actual task of conducting elections is done by the district magistrates who are appointed as returning officers under Sections 21 and 22 of the RPA. It is the DM who ‘returns’ the elected candidate after the counting is complete. The process was further streamlined in 1960 by The Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, which notified the norms for the preparation of electoral rolls and their periodic updating and revision. The inclusion of eligible and registered voters in the electoral rolls, and the exclusion of non-eligible and non-existing voters after an opportunity for ‘public hearing’ was a major electoral reform.

The Conduct of Election Rules,1961, and the subsequent amendments of 2013 and 2016 have dealt with each and every stage of the election process: from the notification of elections to filing, scrutiny and withdrawal of nominations to counting of votes and declaration of results.

With many political parties splitting into one or more factions, the issue of allocation of symbols became important, thereby leading to the Election Symbols Order, 1968, which gave the EC the exclusive power to decide on the allocation of the party symbol. This was followed by the 52ndConstitutional Amendment of 1985. Popularly known as the anti-defection law, it annulled the election of parliamentarians and legislators if they voted against or abstained from voting against the directions of the political party on whose symbol they contested. Through the 61st Constitutional Amendment of 1988, voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. Till T. N. Sheshan’s tenure as chief election commissioner, the EC had only one. However, it was made a three-member commission in 1993.

Appointment of observers 

In August 1996, the RPA 1951 was amended to add a new Section 20B conferring upon the Election Commission the power to appoint observers. They are the appointees of the EC working under its superintendence, control, and discipline for the period from their appointment until the process of election is completed. In addition to general observers from the IAS, the Commission has also started appointing IPS officers as police observers to oversee security arrangements and IRS officers to keep a tab on election expenditure.


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Electronic voting

The next major milestone in the Indian election story was the introduction of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). First used in the 1997 election, it became the only method of voting from 2004. The voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) was introduced in August 2014 in Nagaland and in April 2019, the Supreme Court directed the EC to increase VVPAT slips vote count to five randomly selected EVMs per assembly constituency. VVPAT enables voters to cross-check whether the vote they have given went to their desired candidate.

Another innovative feature of the Indian elections is the “None of the above” (NOTA) option. On 27 September 2013, the Supreme Court judged in a petition filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) that citizens had the right to a negative vote by exercising the NOTA option.

Last, but not least, we come to the issue of electoral bonds announced by the Narendra Modi government in 2017. Under this scheme, bonds for contributions to political parties can be issued by the State Bank of India and purchased by any Know Your Customer (KYC) compliant account. Critics allege that the scheme was designed to help corporate houses donate anonymously, which threatens the very spirit of democracy. On 12 April 2019, the Supreme Court ordered all political parties to submit to the EC detailed particulars of the donors against each bond. The EC has not commented on the merits of the scheme but raised concerns about the anonymity issue. The pronouncement of the Supreme Court will certainly have a major impact on the way elections will be held in the ‘Amrit Kal’of the Indian Republic.

Sanjeev Chopra is a historian and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Till recently, he was the Director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He tweets @ChopraSanjeev. Views are personal.

This article is part of the ‘State of the State‘ series that analyses policy, civil services, and governance in India. 

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