One Nation, One Election Bills introduced: here’s what they say | Explained News

What are the key takeaways from the two Bills?

• First, simultaneous polls, as of now, are only for Parliament and state Assemblies, and not municipal corporations.
• Second, these changes can in ordinary circumstances take shape earliest in the 2034 election cycle. The Constitution amendment Bill states that the “President may by a public 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, and that date of the notification shall be called the appointed date”.

The earliest date of the first sitting of Lok Sabha will be in 2029, and the next election cycle will be in 2034, assuming that both the 18th and 19th Lok Sabhas complete their full five-year terms.

The fine print of the two Bills has other details including providing for scenarios where a mid-term election may have to be called at the state or central level.

For the Constitutional amendment to pass in Parliament will require a “special majority” in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Two conditions have to be satisfied under Article 368 of the Constitution which gives the power to amend.

First, half of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha must vote in favour of the amendment. Second, of all the members “present and voting”, two-thirds must vote in favour of the amendment.

It is practical to leave out municipal elections at this stage. That would have required an amendment to be “ratified” (agreed to) by the legislatures of at least half of all states in the country.

And what do the amendments state?

The proposed amendments are in line with the recommendations by the High-Level Committee on One Nation, One Election chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind, which submitted its report to President Draupadi Murmu in March this year.

The first Bill is The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, which proposes to amend three articles of the Constitution and insert a new one, Article 82A(1-6).

This new provision is intended to facilitate the transition to simultaneous elections. It is proposed to be added after Article 82, which pertains to delimitation, which is the readjustment of allocation of Lok Sabha seats among states after every decadal Census.

According to the Bill, Article 82A provides for simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.

The first clause provides for the timeline: the President can bring into force the proposed changes on the date of the first sitting of the Lok Sabha.

The second clause says the terms of all state Assemblies elected after the appointed date and before the expiry of the full term of the Lok Sabha “shall come to an end on the expiry of the full term of the House of the People”. This means that some Assemblies will have their five-year terms curtailed to pave the way for simultaneous elections.

Under Article 82A(3), the Election Commission of India (ECI) “shall conduct general elections to the House of the People and all Legislative Assemblies simultaneously”.

Article 82 A(4) defines simultaneous elections as “general elections held for constituting the House of the People and all the Legislative Assemblies together”.

Article 82A(5) gives the ECI the option of not holding any particular Assembly election along with the election to Lok Sabha.

“If the Election Commission is of the opinion that the elections to any…Assembly cannot be conducted along with the…election to the House of the People, it may make a recommendation to the President, to declare by an order, that the election to that Legislative Assembly may be conducted at a later date,” the proposed Article 82A(5) says.

Article 82A(6) says if an Assembly election is deferred, the full term of that Assembly will also end with the full term of the Lok Sabha elected in the general election.

What if a government falls before the completion of its five-year term?

This scenario is addressed in the Bill by amending an existing provision — Article 83 of the Constitution which prescribes for the duration of Houses of Parliament. While Rajya Sabha is not dissolved — one-third of its members retire every second year — the Lok Sabha’s term is a fixed five years unless it is dissolved sooner.

The Bill proposes adding new clauses to this provision. Essentially, these changes state that if the Lok Sabha is dissolved before the end of its full term, the next Lok Sabha will only be for the unexpired term — “the period between its date of dissolution and five years from the date of the first meeting”.

Suppose Lok Sabha is dissolved after three years and two months of its term, the next election will only be for a Lok Sabha that will function for twenty-two months.

Another proposed sub-clause clarifies that the new House (formed after the mid-term election) will not be a continuation of the old one. This means that Bills pending in the House will expire — as it happens even when the House has functioned for a full term.

The Bill also proposes changes to Article 372 that pertains to the power of Parliament to make provisions with respect to elections to state legislatures. This is again a change in nomenclature to extend the power to conduct “simultaneous polls”.

The existing Article says: “Parliament may from time to time…make provision with respect to all matters relating to, or in connection with, elections to either House of Parliament or to the House or either House of the Legislature of a State including the preparation of electoral rolls, the delimitation of constituencies and all other matters necessary for securing the due constitution of such House or Houses.” The amendment proposes to add the words “conduct of simultaneous elections” after the words “delimitation of constituencies”.

What about state Assemblies, and mid-term polls there?

For state Assemblies, amendments similar to those proposed to Article 83 are proposed to Article 172, which provides for the duration of state legislatures.

In case of dissolution of a state Assembly before its full term, the election would be held for the unexpired term of the preceding Assembly.

And what about the second Bill introduced in Parliament on Monday?

The second Bill, The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, has proposed amendments to the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

This is because Union Territories are governed under a separate constitutional scheme that is different from states.