NEW DELHI: Laying the groundwork for the Centre’s ‘One Nation, One Poll’ proposal, the 22nd Law Commission will submit its final report on the feasibility of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, according to top sources in the law ministry.
The commission headed by Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi has been working on the final report since February this year.
The first meeting of a high-level committee on simultaneous polls headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind was held last Saturday. The Justice Awasthi-led panel held extensive consultations with political parties, bureaucrats, academicians and experts.
“I won’t say that there was consensus among parties on the idea,” an official said, adding that the government may send the Law Commission’s report to the Kovind-led committee for their perusal.
Speaking to this newspaper, the official said the law panel would recommend synchronised elections in the next five years so that the simultaneous poll rollout will start in 2029.
To synchronise the elections, the process has to begin from this year, the official said. He also dismissed the possibility of holding simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies in 2024.
The commission has drawn most of its recommendations from the draft report of the previous Law Commission led by Justice B S Chauhan, submitted in 2018, said the source.
“We have taken many recommendations of the Justice Chauhan committee report into consideration. On the same lines as the previous law commission’s report, we have recommended synchronisation of elections in the next five years,” he said.
The suggestions of the previous Law Commission included advancing or postponing election timings in certain states, such that polls to all state assemblies and the Lok Sabha may be held together. If assembly elections are due before Lok Sabha elections, it said that the term of these assemblies may be extended to synchronise it with the Lok Sabha elections, by amending the Constitution.
“We have also made proposals on similar lines. It is up to the government to take the final call,” the official said.
If simultaneous elections cannot be conducted, all elections falling due in a calendar year should be conducted together, the panel had suggested. It would require at least five Constitutional amendments.
The official further said, “The previous commission gave suggestions for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. We have considered its suggestions on hung House and no-confidence motion, etc,” he said.