NEW DELHI: Former Chief Justice of India UU Lalit and former chairperson of Law Commission Ritu Raj Awasthi are among four legal experts to depose on Tuesday before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) scrutinising the One Nation One Election (ONOE) Bill.
“The Joint Committee on the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, will interact with legal experts,” an official notice said.
The other two witnesses are Niten Chandra, secretary of a high-level committee led by former President Ramnath Kovind, and former Congress MP E M Sudarsana Natchiappan. As chairman of the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, the latter submitted a report on ‘Feasibility of Holding Simultaneous Elections’ favouring simultaneous polls.
The 39-member JPC headed by former Union Minister P P Chaudhary was mandated to scrutinise the two bills introduced during the Monsoon session of Parliament.
The panel has convened two meetings so far, and the third meeting is expected to see fireworks as, for the first time, legal experts are deposing before it. Ppposition parties have opposed the Bill, alleging it is ‘anti-federal’ and against the basic structure of the Constitution. The government, however, says that synchronising electoral timelines will help meet logistical challenges, reduce costs, and minimise disruptions caused by frequent elections.
The panel’s first meeting witnessed a strong exchange of opinions between Opposition and BJP MPs on the proposed legislation, with several opposition MPs questioning the claim that simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls will cut expenditure.
While Niten Chandra, secretary of the high-level committee, is expected to defend its proposals on conducting simultaneous polls across the country, the Opposition is all set to present its arguments aggressively, said a source familiar with the meeting.
To synchronise the terms of the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, the Kovind panel has proposed the insertion of Article 82A into the Constitution.
It says that the new government, which takes charge after the Lok Sabha election, should set an “appointed date” to effect the constitutional changes. All the state Assemblies formed after the ‘appointed date” would have their terms expire with the Lok Sabha.
Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, who led the 22nd Law Commission, submitted its report on simultaneous polls to the Union Law Ministry last March, recommending synchronising the terms of state Assemblies in “two phases” in the next five years so that the first simultaneous elections could be held in May-June 2029.