Union Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will introduce the Bills to hold simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha as well as State and Union Territories Assemblies in the Lok Sabha on Monday as per the day’s agenda.
On Thursday, the Cabinet approved the Constitution (One Hundred and Nineteenth Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territories Act (Amendment Bill, 2024) and sent it to MPs on Friday evening.
According to the draft bills, the simultaneous elections will come into effect on a “date to be notified” by the President in the first sitting of the Lok Sabha after the general election. According to the Constitution Amendment Bill, the tenure of all the provincial assemblies elected after this date will end with the full term of the Lok Sabha, which will pave the way for simultaneous elections.
As the first session of the elected Lok Sabha is over in 2024, the earliest date that can be notified is the first session of the elected house in the 2029 elections. This means that after the completion of the full term of that House, elections can be held once by 2034.
The Bill added a new Article 82(a) (simultaneous election of Janata Sabha and all Legislative Assemblies) and amended Article 83 (term of Houses of Parliament), Article 172 (term of State Legislatures), and Article 327 (powers). Parliament to make provisions regarding elections to the Legislature).
Similarly, for Union Territories, the Bill makes similar changes to the provisions of the Assemblies of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry.
The bills were drafted as per the recommendations of a high-level committee chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind, which was appointed by the Law Ministry on September 2, 2023 to suggest measures and amendments to hold simultaneous elections.
According to the Bills, if the Lok Sabha or any state or union territory assembly is dissolved before the completion of the full term, there will be mid-term elections for the remaining five-year term only for that legislature.
Article 82(a) has been inserted in the draft bill, which states, “The President may, by public notice issued on the day of the first sitting of Parliament after the general election, give effect to the provisions of this section, which date of notice shall be called the appointed date.”
Notwithstanding anything contained in Article 83 and Article 172, the term of office of all Legislative Assemblies constituted at any general election held after the specified date and before the expiry of the full term of the People’s Assembly shall expire. A full term of the House of the People,” the bill said.
In the statement of objects and reasons, the government cited “expensive and time-consuming” elections as the reason for holding simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and state/UT assemblies. The government has not specified the cost or time limit of the election as it is necessary to hold the election at once.
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