The Joint Committee on the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, examining proposed legislation for "One Nation, One Election," will meet media personalities and economists on Monday to seek their views on the proposed legislation.
The panel will interact with media personalities including Shekhar Gupta,
Rajat Sharma, Rajdeep Sardesai, Suhail Seth, Sudhir Chaudhary and Anjana Om Kashyap among others. The panel will also meet economists V. Anantha Nageswaran, Prof S. Mahendra Dev, S. Gurumurthy and Dr. Prachi Mishra.
Last week, the panel shelved its proposed October 6 visit to the Supreme Court to interact with judges on the legislation amid Opposition concerns over separation of powers.
It was learned that Supreme Court judges declined to meet the panel members as the proposed legislation may be challenged in the Apex Court later.
However, panel chairman and BJP MP PP Chaudhary told the media that the visit had been put off because the committee members' dates did not match. The notice announcing the proposed informal discussion with the Chief Justice of India and other judges was circulated among the members on September 24th.
The proposed visit drew objections from the Opposition, with at least one member of the joint committee writing to Chaudhary to seek its cancellation.
The MP is learnt to have argued that an interaction with the Chief Justice of India or other sitting judges on the constitutional validity or merits of the proposed legislation could raise concerns over the separation of powers and the institutional independence of Parliament and the judiciary.
The member is also learnt to have pointed out that the legislature's role in considering and making laws should remain distinct from the judiciary's role in adjudicating their validity, and that seeking the views of sitting judges on legislation which could subsequently come before the Supreme Court for judicial scrutiny could create an avoidable institutional overlap.
Independent Rajya Sabha member Kapil Sibal had also publicly raised similar objections to the proposed visit, calling it "unconstitutional" and contrary to the concept of separation of powers.
Sibal, a senior advocate, said he had never seen a parliamentary panel hold an interaction with Supreme Court judges over proposed legislation that could later come before the court for adjudication.
He claimed a programme circulated by the Chaudhary-led committee listed a "local study visit" to the Supreme Court on October 6, including an informal discussion with the CJI and other judges on simultaneous polls.
Sibal argued that while Parliament has the prerogative to enact laws, the judiciary must then examine their constitutional validity if challenged.
The 31-member JPC, led by PP Chaudhary, was constituted to examine and suggest changes to the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024.
The bills were introduced in Lok Sabha in December 2024, following which they were referred to the joint committee for examination.
The bills were formulated after a high-level panel, headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind, recommended holding Lok Sabha, state assembly, and local body elections simultaneously in a phased manner. Union Home Minister Amit Shah was also a member of the high-level panel headed by Kovind.