{"id":260989,"date":"2023-09-20T21:29:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T15:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=260989"},"modified":"2023-09-20T21:29:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T15:59:00","slug":"simultaneous-polls-do-states-have-a-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/simultaneous-polls-do-states-have-a-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Simultaneous polls: do States have a say?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cSimultaneous polls: do States have a say?\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d <\/strong>on 20th September 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Indian Polity<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– The Union government on September 2 set up a committee under the leadership of the former President of India Ram Nath Kovind to look into the feasibility of simultaneous polls to State Assemblies and the Lok Sabha.<\/p>\n

What are three distinct methods outlined in Article 368 for making amendments in the constitution?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Simple majority-<\/strong> The amendments are made through a simple majority of members present and voting<\/strong> in each House of Parliament. These provisions are exempt from the scope of Article 368. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Examples of such provisions include amendments related to Article 4<\/strong> (pertaining to changes in the organization of States), Article 169 (c<\/strong>oncerning the abolition or creation of Legislative Councils in States).<\/p>\n

Special majority- <\/strong>\u00a0This entails the presence and affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the members<\/strong> in each House of Parliament, along with the support of a majority of the total membership<\/strong> in each House.<\/p>\n

Special majority and ratification by states-<\/strong> It necessitates both a ‘special majority’ and the ratification<\/strong> by at least one-half of the State legislatures. <\/strong><\/p>\n

What are the entrenched provisions of the constitution?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The constitutional provisions that necessitate ratification for their amendment are explicitly detailed in Article 368(2). They primarily relate to the federal structure<\/strong> of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

1 .Any alteration in the provisions concerning the election of the President of India (Article 54 and 55).<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Any modification in the scope of executive authority<\/strong> vested in the Union or State governments (Article 73 and 162).<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Changes in the provisions governing the Union judiciary or the High Courts (Articles 124\u2013147 and 214\u2013231).<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Amendments affecting the distribution of legislative and administrative powers between the<\/li>\n
  4. Union and the States (Article 245 to 255).<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Modifications to any of the Lists outlined in the Seventh Schedule.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Alterations to the representation of the States in Parliament (Article 82).<\/strong><\/li>\n
  7. Amendments to Article 368 itself.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What were the debates in the Constituent Assembly regarding \u2018entrenched provisions\u2019? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

    B.R. Ambedkar supported the idea of requiring State ratification<\/strong> for the amendment of specific constitutional provisions<\/strong>. It ensures that the core federal structure<\/strong> of the Constitution remains intact.<\/p>\n

    Dr. Ambedkar, was not in favour of allowing the Central Parliament to amend articles<\/strong> related to administrative, legislative, financial, and the executive powers<\/strong> of the provinces, without granting any voice to the provinces or States.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    He cautioned that allowing all constitutional amendments through a simple majority vote would undermine the principle of the separation of powers.<\/p>\n

    Can a constitutional amendment be struck down if not ratified?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Kihoto Hollohan versus Zachillhu (1992)<\/strong>– A challenge was made to the constitutional validity of the Tenth Schedule<\/strong> of the Constitution, which was introduced by the Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act, 1985. <\/strong><\/p>\n

    The challenge was based on the argument that the amendment had not been ratified by the States.<\/strong> The Tenth Schedule included a provision, Paragraph 7<\/strong>. It sought to exclude the jurisdiction<\/strong> of all courts.<\/p>\n

    The amendment brought about changes in the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the High Courts<\/strong>. This aspect required ratification by half of the States. <\/strong><\/p>\n

    A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court upheld the overall validity of the Tenth Schedul<\/strong>e but declared Paragraph 7 invalid<\/strong> due to the lack of ratification.<\/p>\n

    Union of India versus Rajendra N. Shah<\/strong>– The Supreme Court ruled against certain provisions of the Constitution (97th Amendment) Act, 2011<\/strong>. The amendment had introduced Part IX B <\/strong>into the Constitution to regulate co-operative societies.<\/p>\n

    The Court unanimously determined that this amendment should have been ratified by at least half of the State legislatures,<\/strong> since it dealt with a subject that fell under the exclusive authority of the States.<\/p>\n

    What is the viewpoint of the Law Commission?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    In August 2018, the Law Commission of India, headed by Justice B. S. Chauhan,<\/strong> issued a preliminary report<\/strong>. It stated that holding simultaneous elections is not feasible<\/strong> within the current framework of the Constitution.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The Commission emphasised that a constitutional amendment of this nature would need ratification from at least 50% of the States.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    What is the viewpoint of experts on amendments proposed by the Law Commission?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    According to P.D.T Achar<\/strong>y , for simultaneous elections to occur, all existing State Assemblies, which currently have varying tenures, would need to be dissolved. <\/strong><\/p>\n

    This could happen through two methods: either the ruling government in a State voluntarily recommends dissolution<\/strong>, or there is a breakdown of constitutional machinery. <\/strong><\/p>\n

    However, the latter scenario is unlikely to occur for all States simultaneously.<\/p>\n

    Only remaining option is for the Union government to amend Article 172<\/strong>. It states that every legislative Assembly of every State shall continue for five years from its first meeting unless dissolved earlier.<\/p>\n

    P.D.T Achary<\/strong> states that amending this provision to synchronise State elections with Lok Sabha polls <\/strong>cannot be achieved without infringing upon the federal structure<\/strong> of the Constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Source– The post is based on the article \u201cSimultaneous polls: do States have a say?\u201d published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d on 20th September 2023. Syllabus: GS3- Indian Polity News– The Union government on September 2 set up a committee under the leadership of the former President of India Ram Nath Kovind to look into the… Continue reading Simultaneous polls: do States have a say?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10500,225],"class_list":["post-260989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-indian-express","tag-polity","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":2,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1698413569},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}