NEW DELHI: At the meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the ‘One Nation One election’ Bill, former Supreme Court Judge Hemant Gupta made suggestions, including the substitution of existing Article 82A with a new provision for the simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, said sources.
Article 82A of the Constitution, as proposed by the 129th Amendment Bill 2024, aims to facilitate “One Nation, One Election”.
Justice Gupta spoke against the curtailment of assemblies, which have not completed at least three years of tenure, to synchronise their elections with that of the Lok Sabha, sources said. He instead suggested that their tenures should be extended. Gupta also conveyed his broad agreement to amend the Constitution to conduct simultaneous elections to Parliament and state assemblies, the sources said.
Congress MP and SC lawyer Abhishek Singhvi said that the draft laws proposing simultaneous elections violate the ‘basic structure’, the will of the people and principles of federalism, even as several other jurists cited their positive impact.
Singhvi said that the idea of federalism has evolved in the country over a period of time, citing the devolution of financial resources to the states by the Finance Commission and the gradual empowerment of local bodies.
He also appeared to suggest that simultaneous elections will homogenise the agenda, favouring the same party in the national and state elections.
Sources added that another former SC judge, B S Chauhan, also a former chairman of the Law Commission of India, called for introducing the “doctrine of constructive no-confidence motion” so that an alternative government must be ready to step in if the incumbent is brought down through a no-confidence motion..
According to sources, DMK Rajya Sabha MP P Wilson cited a violation of federalism by the proposed curtailment of state assemblies. “The rights of the states have to be respected,” he said, according to sources.