'One Nation, One Election' Panel Recommends Cutting Short State Assemblies' Term To Synchronize With Lok Sabha Term

Established in September of the previous year, the committee was tasked with examining the concept of 'one nation, one election.' Among its terms of reference was the examination and recommendation for holding simultaneous elections to the House of the People (Lok Sabha), State Legislative Assemblies, Municipalities, and Panchayats. The committee was to propose specific amendments to the Constitution of India, the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and other related laws.

In its report, the committee recommended holding simultaneous elections, citing the burden on various stakeholders such as the Government, businesses, workers, Courts, political parties, candidates, and civil society. To manage the complexities, the committee suggested two steps. Firstly, it recommended holding simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. Secondly, it proposed synchronizing the elections for Municipalities and Panchayats with those of the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, ensuring that the former are conducted within a hundred days of the latter.

How Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are proposed to be synchronised?

The Committee has proposed the insertion of Article 82A to the Constitution to synchronise the terms of the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

All the State Assemblies which are constituted in general elections held after this Article is brought into effect ("Appointed Date") will come to end along with the expiry of the full term of the Lok Sabha. For example, if the Article is given effect to in June 2024, all the State Assemblies which are formed after this notification will have a term only till 2029. So, if a State election is held in 2027, the Assembly's term will end in 2029 along with the Lok Sabha.

“For the purpose of synchronisation of elections to the House of the People and State Legislative Assemblies, the Committee recommends that the President of India may, by notification, issued on the date of the first sitting of the House of the People after a General election, bring into force the provision of this Article (Article 82A), and that date of the notification shall be called the Appointed date.

And the tenure of all State Legislative Assemblies, constituted by elections to the State Legislative Assemblies after the Appointed date and before the expiry of the full term of the House of the People, shall be only for the period ending up to the subsequent General elections to the House of the People.

Thereafter, all General elections to the House of the People and all State Legislative Assemblies shall be held together simultaneously.,” the report added.

To ease the process, an Implementation Group has been recommended to look into the execution of Committee's recommendations.

Imperatively, as per Article 82A (4), if the Election Commission opines that the elections to any Legislative Assembly cannot be conducted at the time of the General Election, it may recommend to the President to declare by an Order that the election to that Legislative Assembly may be conducted at a later date.

What if there is hung house or a no-confidence motion?

Further, in the event of a hung house and a no-confidence motion, fresh elections may take place. Notably, the tenure will only be for the unexpired term in such cases. In other words, it will be the remainder of the full term, ie. for five years. Further, the expiration of this period shall operate as a dissolution of the House. 

For example, if a government falls in a no-confidence motion in the second year of the house, then fresh elections can be held. However, the new government will only have the remainder term of three years. Amendments are proposed to Articles 83 and 172 in this regard.

Other proposed amendments include the introduction of Article 324A to hold simultaneous elections for local bodies. The proposed Article 324 A reads as follows:

“Notwithstanding anything in Art. 243E and 243U, Parliament may by law make provision for ensuring that the elections to Municipalities and Panchayats are held simultaneously with the General Elections, and for this purpose, make provisions as may be necessary, including provisions for determination of the term of the Municipalities and Panchayats sooner than the expiry of five years from the date appointed for their first meeting, and for limiting the term of such Municipalities and Panchayats constituted under a mid-term election to the unexpired period of their term until the next general elections.”

For this purpose, an amendment to Article 325 to enable a Single Electoral Roll and Single Elector's Photo Identity Card is also recommended.

Given that local bodies are on the state list, ratification by states is required. However, ratification is not required to hold simultaneous elections in the House of the People and State Legislative Assemblies.

Reader's attention may also be drawn to the fact that the committee deliberated on this subject for 191 days after its constitution. Also, other members of the committee included Home Minister Amit Shah, former Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Finance Commission chairperson NK Singh, former Lok Sabha secretary-general Subhash C Kashyap, senior advocate Harish Salve, and former Chief Vigilance Commissioner Sanjay Kothari.

The report can be read here.