X Semester B.A.LL.B. (Hons.

) Course

CE
on
EFFICACY OF ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA

For the academic year 2017

Subject-
ELECTION LAW

Prepared & Submitted by: Submitted To :

Utkarsh Singh Vats Prof. Tarkesh Molia

12BAL059
 EFFICACY OF ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA

INTRODUCTION

Election Commission is an autonomous body responsible for conducting and administering

elections in India. It is a constitutional body, which is established under Article 324 of the
Constitution of India. The Article reads as follows:

Article 324. (1) The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of the electoral
rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections to Parliament and to the Legislature of every State
and of elections to the offices of President and Vice-President held under this Constitution
shall be vested in a Commission (referred to in this Constitution as the Election
Commission).

Although the Election Commission started with being a single member body in 1950, since
1993, the election commission is a three member body. It comprises of a Chief Election
Commissioner and two other Election Commissioners.

Election Commission administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, State
Legislatures, and also to the offices of President and the Vice President of the country.

FUNCTIONS

The most important function of the election commission is to conduct fair and free elections.
India, being the largest democracy in the world, requires conducting of elections, at regular
intervals, be it elections for the Lok Sabha, for the Rajya Sabha, or even for the elections in
the State Legislatures, along with the other local and municipal elections. At times, like the
contemporary 2017, there are elections in 5 different states of India, in a span of two months,
which shows the level of management needed to conduct these elections.

Election Commission, widely considered as the guardian of elections, performs a very

important function as to maintain the transparency in the conduct of elections.
The way election commission performs its function is by issuing a model code of conduct
before the conduct of every election. This model code of conduct is designed with the
consensus of all the political parties involved in the election and thus require strict adherence
by the political parties and the candidates.

MODEL CODE OF CONDUCT

Model code of conduct is a set of principles/guidelines which the Election Commission issues
prior to an election, for the conduct of the political parties and its candidates, during the
elections. Model code of conduct is issued to keep a check on the speeches of the candidates,
election manifestos, and for general conduct of the candidates and the parties.

For instance, the Election Commission recently, in January, 2017, came out with a model
code of conduct, prior to the elections which were going to be held in 5 states of Uttar
Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur.

In the above said model code of conduct, the election commission issued certain guidelines
which were to be followed by the political parties and their candidates. Some of the
guidelines are as follows:

No party or candidate shall include in any activity which may aggravate existing
differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and
communities, religious or linguistic.

Criticism of other political parties, when made, shall be confined to their policies and
programme, past record and work. Parties and Candidates shall refrain from criticism
of all aspects of private life, not connected with the public activities of the leaders or
workers of other parties. Criticism of other parties or their workers based on
unverified allegations or distortion shall be avoided.

There shall be no appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes. Mosques,
Churches, Temples or other places of worship shall not be used as forum for election
propaganda.
 All parties and candidates shall avoid scrupulously all activities which are corrupt
practices and offences under the election law, such as bribing of voters, intimidation
of voters, impersonation of voters, canvassing within 100 meters of polling stations,
holding public meetings during the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for
the close of the poll, and the transport and conveyance of voters to and from polling
station.

The above mentioned guidelines are some of the guidelines issued by the Election
Commission to maintain a check on the general conduct of the candidates.

Along with the above mentioned four guidelines, there are numerous other guidelines which
were mentioned by the Chief Election Commissioner. Nasim Zaidi, when the model code of
conduct came into force on January 4, 2017.

Further, when the model code of conduct is initiated by the Election Commission, all the
bureaucratic works of the state government are to be held back and the state government is
not supposed to do any inauguration, transfer of officers, or make any new announcements,
etc.

TIRUNELLAI NARAYANA IYER SESHAN

When we talk about Election Commission, and the respective Election Commissioners, one
cannot not notice and revere Tirunellai Narayana Iyer Seshan, commonly known as TN
Seshan.

TN Seshan was the man who is regarded as the person who cleaned the elections in India. He
initially served as the government secretary in 1989. After his tenure as the cabinet secretary,
he was appointed as the tenth Chief Election Commissioner of India.

He is considered to be the person who ended the malpractices in elections, and redefined the
status of Election Commission. His detractors used to refer him as authoritarian, and bossy,
but he was considered as a hero in the eyes of the Indian public, for eliminating malpractices
in Elections in India. He was known for ensuring transparency and efficiency.
It is believed that in his tenure as the Chief Election Commissioner, the cleanest elections
were held in the living memory. "Nobody dared to violate the law."1

Some of the major contributions of TN Seshan, because of which he is revered and

considered in such a high position are as following:

1) Insuring free and fair elections- During his tenure, TN Seshan reviewed more than forty
thousand cases of false election returns and disqualified fourteen thousand potential
candidates for public offence.

He was so adamant on ensuring the free and fair elections, that he would threaten that if
independence is not granted to him, he would not conduct the elections, and will cancel the
elections. Political classes were so much against him that when he cancelled the Punjab and
Bihar election in 1992, some of the politicians tried to impeach him. In their dismay, the
Speaker of the Lok Sabha, overruled the motion.

Seshan, knew very well that conducting elections in India is a huge task, and the fact that
election commission does not and cannot have a permanent workforce with them, for the
purpose of being personnel in the elections, makes it even tough for the functioning of the
election commission, as the election commission has to be dependent on the state machinery,
during the times of elections.

This is when Seshan started a full-fledged war for getting independence. He saw that the
bureaucracy and the deputized state employees are under the control of the local politicians.
He fought for gaining full authority over the deputized state employees, for the time being,
till the elections are conducted, so that no political pressure is there on the employees, while
they are doing their duties in their respective booths. The State officials objected, to which
Seshan replied that as per the Constitution of India, once the state employees are assigned to
the Election Commission, they fell under his jurisdiction. After a high intensity fight, the
Supreme Court ruled in favor of Seshan, and he got complete authority on the deputize
personnel.

One of the time when Seshan was at complete odds with the Central government was during
the time of Tamil Nadu elections in 1993, which was marred with violence. TS Seshan
ordered the Union government to deploy armed security forces in Tamil Nadu, and asked the

1
Gilmartin, David (North Carolina State Univ.) "'One Day's Sultan':T.N. Seshan and the Reforms of the
Election Commission in the 1990s.
state government to use the said security force during the time of elections. The Home
Minister refused to carry out the orders of the Chief Election Commissioner, by citing the
reason that the "states cannot have a force hoisted on them."

Seshan, reacting to this refusal of the home minister, decreed that until the government does
not recognize the power of the election commission, no election would take place in the
country. In his words, this decree took the political leaders "by storm." This standoff also
went to the Supreme Court. However, before the Supreme Court could hear this issue, Seshan
took back his decision, already making his point clear and gaining a huge respect in the eyes
of the electorate.

Right now, the Election Commission is composed of one Chief Election Commissioner, and
two other Election Commission, thereby making it a three member body. However, this was
not the composition from the beginning. Till Seshan's appointment, the Election Commission
was a one member body only. It was on 1st October, 1993, that two other election
commissioners were also appointed in the commission, alongside the Chief election
commission, thereby making it a three member body. The decisions of the commission were
to be taken by majority vote. This step was taken by the Parliament to curtail the powers of
the then Chief Election Commissioner, TN Seshan, which though Seshan opposed, was
approved by the Supreme Court. Responding to this decision of the Supreme Court, Seshan
retorted by saying that this would make the Commission "impotent and a eunuch."

2) Empowered the voters- Seshan was acclaimed for going to different parts of India and
circulated publications to people living even in remote areas, regarding the rights of the
voters and their duties, and campaigned against electoral malpractices.

3) Reformed electoral procedures- It was Seshan who ordered the government to start
delivering voter identification cards to the voters, which would also have the photos of the
voters attached in it, to curb fake voting. The government, citing expensive and unnecessary
as reasons, refused to do so. Seshan again orders that if no voter cards were issued to voters,
no elections would be held after January 1, 1995. Seshan had even postponed a few elections
for the time being, The matter again went to the Supreme Court, which held that voting is an
inherent right of the citizens, and hence cannot be postponed indefinitely. Still, as was seen,
government had began issuing ID cards, and by 1996, two million voters had already
received them.

4) Check on election expenditure- Seshan had put a limit of Rs 20,000 to 40,000 as maximum
expenditure for assembly seats, and Rs 1,50,000 to 1,70,000 as maximum expenditure for
parliament elections. When the then Prime Minister P.V. Narsimha Rao wanted to increase
the maximum limit, and make it more 'practical', Seshan retorted that "any violation of the
ceiling will not be pardoned." He disqualified 1,488 Lok Sabha candidates, as they failed to
submit their expense accounts, during the 1993 General elections.

The above mentioned are just a few noteworthy examples of the changes which were brought
by or were brought because of TN Seshan. Among others, he is also known for ensuring that
bona fide residents of a state, to be a criteria for being a Member of the Parliament, in the
Rajya Sabha, banned election graffiti on walls, both public and private, limited the use of
noisy campaign convoys, blaring loudspeakers, etc.

We cannot fail to notice that majorly all the effective election laws which are there at present,
are there because of this one man, who made it sure that "Lest we forget how bad it was till
he cleaned it up."

We can see from the above mentioned facts that at present, whatever laws are there in
practice with regard to the Election Commission of India, it has all been initiated practically,
by T.N. Seshan. T.N. Seshan was the sole reason why we have been able to conduct our
elections smoothly till now and are still doing so.

RECENT CONTROVERSIES-

Although T.N. Seshan made it possible that the Election Commission of India is able to
function independently, and with full authority, there have been recent examples of
controversies whereby there has been a tussle between the election commission and the
politicians, thereby undermining the power of the Election Commission, to some extent. A
few such instances are as follows:

Sri Prakash Jaiswal- In 2012, the election commission gave him show cause notice for
threatening the voters in UP. He was accused of threatening the voters to give him
votes or be ready to face President's rule in UP.
Salman Khurshid- In the same elections of UP, 2012, Salman Khurshid stated
publically that he will continue to speak for 9 per cent sub quota for Muslims, even if
the Election Commission hangs him.
Beni Prasad Verma- Election Commission gave him a show cause notice for his
statement that "Reservations for Muslims will be increased and if the EC wants, it can
now issue notice to me."

The above instances are just few examples when the politicians, majorly the politicians of the
Central government (at the time) have undermined the authority of the election commission.
What is to be implied from these recent controversies, and what will be the effect of such
undermining of Election Commission's power, only time will tell.

But one thing is sure. Election Commission, thanks to the Constitutional authority vested in
it, as was effectively implemented by T.N. Seshan, holds a very powerful and responsible
position with respect to conducting elections fairly and freely. This authority and
independence should always be maintained by it and should always be respected by the
politicians and bureaucrats.

With respect to the efficacy of Election Commission, as the then Chief Election
Commissioner, VS Sampath said in 2014, "The efficacy of Indian elections is time tested",
that is, the Election Commission's efficacy will be tested by time, again and again, and it has
to win every time so that democracy does not lose, ever.