First ‘one nation, one election' likely in 2034, shorter terms for state assemblies after 2029: Report
The government plans to implement nationwide simultaneous elections by 2034, following the passage of the 'one nation, one election' constitutional amendment bill. State assemblies elected after 2029 will have shorter terms to align with the 2034 Lok Sabha elections.
PP Choudhary, head of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the bill (The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024), told The Times of India that, for instance, the assembly elected in 2032 in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest electoral state, may serve only two years to synchronise with the 2034 Lok Sabha elections. The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, include provisions for simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly elections.
To implement simultaneous elections, the President may issue a notification on the sitting of the Lok Sabha after a general election. The tenure of all state assemblies formed after this date will end concurrently with the Lok Sabha's five-year term. If the Lok Sabha or a state assembly is dissolved before completing its five-year term, elections will be held to cover the remaining duration, aligning the next election with the simultaneous election cycle.
If the Election Commission of India (ECI) determines that a state assembly election cannot be conducted as part of simultaneous elections, it may recommend to the President to defer that election. The President can then order the election to be held later.
The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, grants the ECI authority to recommend postponing a state assembly election to the President without requiring parliamentary approval, unlike the current Article 356, which imposes specific conditions and parliamentary consent for such delays.
PP Choudhary, the Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Pali, Rajasthan, told ToI that the Joint Parliamentary Committee's (JPC) tenure might be extended due to a consensus among members to visit various states and Union Territories before finalising recommendations.
The JPC, chaired by Choudhary, has already visited Maharashtra and Uttarakhand. The bills, introduced in the Lok Sabha in December last year, were referred to this panel, which has been engaging with stakeholders for feedback.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Gazette
2 hours ago
- India Gazette
'RJD has non-constitutional ideology, insults Babasaheb Ambedkar': BJP
New Delhi [India], June 15 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national spokesperson Shahzad Poonawalla on Sunday accused the RJD of repeatedly insulting Babasaheb Ambedkar and said that the party has a 'non-constitutional ideology'. On RJD chief Lalu Yadav, Poonawala told ANI, 'The insult to Scheduled Castes and Dalits represents the real identity of the RJD and its allies, Congress and the INDI Alliance. The way BR Ambedkar's picture was placed under the feet of Lalu Prasad Yadav and the indecency shown with the image of Ambedkar, this is the original character of RJD' The BJP spokesperson further alleged that the rules of the Constitution are 'not important' for the party. 'RJD has a non-constitutional ideology. For them, the son is very important, not Baba Saheb. 'Jungle raj' and 'Pariwar raj' are important for RJD, but not the rules of the constitution. Again and again, the RJD insults Babasaheb Ambedkar and the people of Scheduled Caste communities...'. Meanwhile, on Saturday, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing its leaders of having no connection with BR Ambedkar, the Constitution, or reservation policies, while defending his father and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav. 'These (BJP) people have nothing to do with Baba Saheb, the Constitution, and Reservation. Lalu Yadav has installed many statues of Baba Saheb Ambedkar in Bihar. We are the people who believe in Ambedkar's ideology. The BJP only spread lies,' Tejashwi asserted. 'Lalu Yadav works for 10 hours at the age of 78 and meets people. He is ill, but still they accuse him of such things,' he further highlighted. Speaking to ANI, Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary said, 'It is clearly visible that Lalu Prasad Yadav is trying to become a king and murder democracy. The way Babasaheb Ambedkar's photo was insulted clearly indicates that Lalu Yadav is trying to insult Babasaheb Ambedkar.' Commenting on the sword used during the cake-cutting, Choudhary added, 'This is criminal mentality. Today, he cut his cake with a sword; when he comes into power, he will cut it with an AK-47.' The controversy erupted after Lalu Prasad Yadav was seen cutting his 78th birthday cake with a sword, drawing criticism from BJP leaders who claimed it symbolised disregard for democratic values and Ambedkar's legacy. These political developments come while the Assembly Elections are expected in Bihar later this year. However, the Election Commission has not announced the official dates. (ANI)
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Despite SC nod, HCs not keen on appointing retired judges to tackle backlog
New Delhi, Despite the Supreme Court clearing the idea nearly five months ago, the high courts seem not to be keen on appointing ad-hoc judges to tackle pending criminal cases, details available with the government showed. According to people aware of the procedure to appoint Supreme Court and high court judges, none of the high court collegiums have so far recommended names of retired judges to be appointed as ad-hoc judges. There are 25 high courts in the country. Till June 11, no high court collegiums sent any such proposal to the Union Law Ministry. Considering a backlog of over 18 lakh criminal cases, the Supreme Court on January 30 allowed the high courts to appoint ad-hoc judges, not exceeding 10 per cent of the court's total sanctioned strength. Article 224A of the Constitution allows the appointment of retired judges as ad-hoc judges in high courts to help deal with pendency. According to the laid down procedure, the respective high court collegiums send recommendations or names of candidates to be appointed as HC judges to the Department of Justice in the law ministry. The department then adds inputs and details of the candidates before forwarding the same to the Supreme Court Collegium. The SC Collegium then takes a final call and recommends to the government to appoint the selected persons as judges. The president signs the 'warrant of appointment' of the newly-appointed judge. The procedure to appoint ad-hoc judges will be the same except that the president will not sign the warrant of appointment. But the assent of the president will be sought for appointing ad-hoc judges. Except in one case, there is no precedence of appointing retired judges as ad-hoc HC judges, officials had earlier pointed out. In a judgement dated April 20, 2021, on the appointment of ad-hoc judges in the high courts, the top court imposed certain conditions. However, later a special Supreme Court bench comprising then Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant relaxed certain conditions and kept some in abeyance. The verdict, which was authored by former chief justice S A Bobde, directed retired high court judges to be appointed as ad-hoc ones for a period of two to three years to clear the backlog. While one condition said that ad-hoc judges cannot be appointed if a high court was working with 80 per cent of its sanctioned strength, the other said ad-hoc judges could sit separately on benches to deal with cases. Relaxing the conditions, the court said the requirement that vacancies should not be more than 20 per cent of the sanctioned strength for the time being shall be kept in abeyance. The bench also said each high court should keep the appointment to two to five ad-hoc judges and not exceed 10 per cent of the total sanctioned strength. "The ad-hoc judges will sit in a bench presided over by a sitting judge of the high court and decide pending criminal appeals," the apex court's order said. The rarely used Article 224A of the Constitution deals with the appointment of ad-hoc judges in high courts. "The chief justice of a high court for any state may at any time, with the previous consent of the president, request any person who has held the office of a judge of that court or of any other high court to sit and act as a judge of the high court for that state," it says.
Scroll.in
3 hours ago
- Scroll.in
Rajasthan police told to remove Urdu, Persian words from official documents, replace them with Hindi
The Rajasthan government on Saturday directed the state police department to remove Urdu and Persian words in official documents and replace them with Hindi. In a letter issued to the director general of police, Rajasthan minister Jawahar Singh Bedham told the department to prepare a formal proposal on replacing Urdu and Persian words currently used in documents, letters, reports, notice boards and other communication with Hindi terminology. The proposal would then be reviewed and implemented at the appropriate administrative level, it added. The directive by Bedham, the minister of state in the Rajasthan home department, said that in the present times, police personnel and the public at large were not familiar with Urdu and Persian words. It said that due to this, such words should be replaced with terms in Hindi, which it described as the 'national language'. The Constitution does not list any language as the national language. However, Hindi is used as the official language in Rajasthan. The directive said that Urdu and Persian words were introduced during the Mughal era, and administrators at that time had to learn the languages. However, it said that in the current era, Urdu and Persian words are often misunderstood or interpreted, leading to delays in justice. The minister claimed that prioritising Hindi in administrative language would improve accessibility to legal documents, government orders and police records. 'Using Hindi words instead of Urdu/Persian will make it easier for citizens to understand government notices, directives and schemes, which help in establishing better communication between the police administration and the general public,' the letter added. Last year too, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state had pushed for replacing Urdu words used in police terminology with Hindi. The police department had been directed to collect details about Urdu words in such documents and their possible replacement in Hindi.
