Curtailment of assemblies’ tenure, common electoral roll — Kovind panel’s plan for simultaneous polls

Panel has recommended two-step mechanism with simultaneous general & state elections followed by civic and rural polls within 100 days.

Former President Ram Nath Kovind presents report on simultaneous elections to President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday | Pic credit: X/@ramnathkovind

New Delhi: The Ram Nath Kovind-led panel on ‘one nation, one election’ has recommended curtailment of the tenure of state assemblies to make it coterminous with the Lok Sabha to facilitate simultaneous elections. Constitutional amendments to this effect won’t need ratification by states, the panel led by the former President has said in its report submitted to President Droupadi Murmu Thursday.

To make it simpler, if, say 10 June, 2024, is the ‘appointed date’ for the provisions of ‘one nation, one election’ to come into effect, tenure of all State Legislative Assemblies reconstituted after that date will end with the Lok Sabha’s tenure in 2029. To clarify, ThePrint has used 10 June as the appointed date for elaboration; the panel hasn’t mentioned any date.

“…. After the General elections, when the House of the People is constituted, the President would by notification issued on the same date as the date of the first sitting of the house, bring into force the provisions for transition, and this date would be called the ‘Appointed date’. Once the transition provisions are brought into play, the tenure of all State Legislative Assemblies constituted in any election after the ‘Appointed date’ would come to an end on the expiry of the full term of the House of the People, irrespective of when an Assembly was constituted,” the Kovind panel said in its report.

This, the panel notes, would result in the House of the People and all the State Legislative Assemblies being ready for a simultaneous election at the end of this term. “Thereafter, the amendments proposed to the tenure of the House of the People and the State Legislative assemblies will make sure that the synchronisation is maintained.”

The report also states that if the House of the People or a State Legislative Assembly is dissolved sooner than its period of five years from the date appointed for its first meeting, a mid-term election would be held for reconstituting the House or the State Legislative Assembly as the case may be, but the term of the House or the State Legislative Assembly so constituted in a mid-term election, would be for the “remaining unexpired period” of its term.

“In this manner at the end of five years, the House of the People and all the State Legislative Assemblies would reach the end of their tenure at the same time, and be ready for a General election held simultaneously,” the report states.