Election Commissi India - Know Article 324 for UPSC
Election Commission Of India
The Constitution of India has established a permanent and independent body to
ensure free and fair elections in the country known as the Election Commission. The
commission is responsible for holding Lok Sabha elections of India.
What is Article 324?
The Constitution provides the Election Commission of India with the power of
direction, superintendence, and control of elections to parliament, state legislatures,
the office of president of India and the office of vice-president of India.
The Election Commission is an all-India body that is common to both the Central
government and the State governments. It must be noted here that the commission
does not deal with the elections to the Municipalities and Panchayats in the states.
Hence, a separate State Election Commission is provided by the Constitution of
India.
Constitutional Appointment of ECI
Since its inception in 1950 and till 15 October 1989, the election commission was a
one-member body with only the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) as its sole
member.
On 16 October 1989, the voting age was changed from 21 to 18 years. So,
two more election commissioners were appointed by the president in order to
cope with the increased work of the election commission.
Since then, the Election Commission was a multi-member body that consisted
of 3 election commissioners.
Later on, the two posts of election commissioners were eliminated in January
1990 and the Election Commission was reverted to the previous position.
This was repeated again later in October 1993 when the president appointed
two more election commissioners. Since then, the Election Commission
functions as a multi-member body comprising of 3 commissioners.
The chief and the two other election commissioners have the same powers
and emoluments including salaries, which are the same as a Supreme Court
judge.
In case of a difference of opinion amongst the Chief Election Commissioner
and/or two other election commissioners, the matter is decided by the
Commission by a majority.
The office is held by them for a term of 6 years or until they attain 65 years,
whichever happens first. They can also be removed or can resign at any time
before the expiry of their term.
Independence of the Election Commission
Article 324 of The Constitution of India mentions the provisions to safeguard and
ensure the independent and impartial functioning of the Election Commission which
is as follows.
The chief election commissioner is provided with security of tenure. He cannot
be removed from his office except in the same manner and on the same
grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court. In other words, he can be removed
by the President on the basis of a resolution passed to that effect by both the
Houses of Parliament with a special majority, either on the ground of proved
misbehaviour or incapacity.
Thus, he does not hold his office until the pleasure of the president, though he
is appointed by him.
The service conditions of the chief election commissioner cannot be varied to
his disadvantage after his appointment.
Any other election commissioner or a regional commissioner cannot be
removed from office except on the recommendation of the chief election
commissioner.
Though the constitution has sought to safeguard and ensure the
independence and impartiality of the Election Commission, some flaws can be
noted, ie:
The Constitution has not prescribed the qualifications (legal, educational,
administrative or judicial) of the members of the Election Commission.
The Constitution has not specified the term of the members of the
Election Commission.
The Constitution has not debarred the retiring election commissioners
from any further appointment by the government.
Powers, Functions, and Responsibilities of Election Commission
Among the major Constitutional Bodies in India, Election Commission is a
permanent Constitutional Body. It was established in accordance with the
Constitution on 25th January 1950.
The Constitution has vested to this body superintendence, direction and
control of the entire process for conduct of elections.
The Commission’s functions and powers with respect to elections to the
offices of the President, the Vice President, the state legislators and the
Parliament are divided under three headings:
Administrative
Advisory
Quasi-judicial
Powers of Election Commission of India
In details, these powers of the Election Commission of India are:
Determining the Electoral Constituencies’ territorial areas throughout the
country on the basis of the Delimitation Commission Act of Parliament.
Preparing and periodically revising electoral rolls and registering all eligible
voters.
Notifying the schedules and dates of elections and scrutinising nomination
papers.
Granting recognition to the various political parties and allocating them
election symbols.
Acting as a court to settle disputes concerning the granting of recognition to
political parties and allocating election symbols to the parties.
Appointing officers for inquiring into disputes concerning electoral
arrangements.
Determining the code of conduct to be followed by the political parties and
candidates during elections.
Preparing a program for publicising the policies of all the political parties on
various media like TV and radio during elections.
Advising the President on matters concerning the disqualification of MPs.
Advising the Governor on matters concerning the disqualification of MLAs.
Cancelling polls in case of booth capturing, rigging, violence and other
irregularities.
Requesting the Governor or the President for requisitioning the staff required
for conducting elections.
Supervising the machinery of elections throughout the country for ensuring the
conduct of free and fair elections.
Advising the President on whether elections can be held in a state that is
under the President’s rule, in order to extend the period of emergency after 1
year.
Registering political parties and granting them the status of national or state
parties (depending on their poll performance).
The Commission is aided in its function by deputy election commissioners. The
deputy ECs are taken from the civil services and they are appointed by the
Commission. They have a fixed tenure. They are aided by the secretaries, deputy
secretaries, joint secretaries and under-secretaries posted in the commission’s
secretariat.
Functions of Election Commission
1. To direct and control the entire process of conducting elections to Parliament
and Legislature of every State and to the offices of President and Vice-
President of India.
2. To decide the election schedules for the conduct of periodic and timely
elections, whether general or bye-elections
3. To decide on the location of polling stations, assignment of voters to the
polling stations, location of counting centres, arrangements to be made in and
around polling stations and counting centres and all allied matters
4. To prepare electoral roll and issues Electronic Photo Identity Card (EPIC)
5. To grant recognition to political parties & allot election symbols to them along
with settling disputes related to it
6. To sets limits of campaign expenditure per candidate to all the political parties,
and also monitors the same
7. To advise in the matter of post-election disqualification of sitting members of
Parliament and State Legislatures.
8. To issue the Model Code of Conduct in the election for political parties and
candidates so that no one indulges in unfair practice or there is no arbitrary
abuse of powers by those in power.
Composition of Election Commission
Article 324 of the Constitution has made the following provisions with regard to the
composition of the election commission:
The President appoints the Chief Election Commissioner and other election
commissioners.
When any other EC is so appointed, the CEC acts as the Election
Commission’s Chairman.
The President can also appoint regional commissioners to assist the
Commission, if necessary after consulting with the Election Commission.
The tenure of office and the conditions of service of all the commissioners
shall be determined by the country’s President.
Importance of Election Commission for India
The Election Commission has been successfully conducting national as well
as state elections since 1952. Now, it plays an active role to ensure the
greater participation of people.
The Commission has brought discipline among the political parties with a
threat of derecognizing if the parties failed in maintaining inner-party
democracy.
It supports the values preserved in the Constitution viz, equality, equity,
impartiality, independence; and rule of law in superintendence, direction, and
control over the electoral governance.
ECI helps in conducting elections with the highest standard of credibility,
fairness, transparency, integrity, accountability, autonomy and
professionalism.
In the electoral process, it ensures the participation of all eligible citizens in an
inclusive voter-centric and voter-friendly environment.
The Election Commission of India engages with political parties and all
stakeholders in the interest of the electoral process.
It creates awareness about the electoral process and electoral governance
amongst stakeholders (political parties, voters, election functionaries,
candidates and people at large) to enhance and strengthen confidence and
trust in the electoral system of this country.
Challenges faced by Election Commission
1. Increased violence and electoral malpractices under influence of money have
resulted in political criminalization, which ECI is unable to arrest.
2. Election Commission is not adequately equipped to regulate the political
parties. It has no power in enforcing inner-party democracy and regulation of
party finances.
3. ECI is becoming lesser independent of the Executive which has impacted its
image.
4. Allegations of EVMs malfunctioning, getting hacked and not registering votes,
corrodes the trust of the general masses in ECI.
Way Forward – ECI
Until the controversy related to glitches in EVM settles down, the commission
needs to establish its trust amongst people by installing ( Voter Verifiable
Paper Audit Trail System ) VVPATS in more and more constituencies.
The challenge before ECI is to be vigilant and watchful against the collusion at
the lower level of civil and police bureaucracy in favour of the ruling party of
the day.
2nd ARC report recommended that collegium headed by the Prime Minister
with the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok
Sabha, the Law Minister and the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha as
members should make recommendations for the consideration of the
President for the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and the
Election Commissioners.
