The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the ‘One Nation, One Election’ Bill will convene on July 30th, with noted economist N K Singh due to depose before the panel.
Singh, a former Rajya Sabha Member, has served as Chairman of the Fifteenth Finance Commission of India, Member of the Planning Commission, Revenue Secretary, and Secretary to a former Prime Minister.
He will be assisted during the deposition by Dr Prachi Mishra, Professor of Economics and Head and Director of the Isaac Centre for Public Policy at Ashoka University.
The JPC had last met on July 11, when it held detailed interactions with legal experts, including former Chief Justices of India, Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud.
Following that meeting, Committee Chairman P P Chaudhary described the exercise as a golden opportunity for the panel to play its part in nation-building, saying that all members were committed to framing robust legislation.
“Today, a meeting was held for the ‘One Nation, One Election’… Former CJIs Justice Khehar and Justice Chandrachud… were present before us, and we had an interaction. This is a golden opportunity for this committee for nation-building… All the members of the committee are above the party politics and are focused on preparing a good ‘One Nation, One Election’ Bill,” Chaudhary told the media after the previous sitting.
He further added that both committee members and the experts were in agreement about the importance of the initiative. Apart from the former CJIs, the panel also heard views from former MP and ex-chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice, E M S Natchiappan.
Members who attended the last meeting included Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Manish Tewari, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Saket Gokhale, Shambhavi Choudhary, and Bhartruhari Mahtab.
Answering questions from reporters, Chaudhary underlined that the committee was consulting judges as they are constitutional experts who stay impartial and are focused only on the legal framework.
P P Chaudhary, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, said the committee is reviewing possible amendments to ensure that the Bill can withstand judicial scrutiny and help realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘One Nation, One Election’.
The JPC chief also spoke about the panel’s outreach visits to five states and a union territory, stating that valuable inputs had been received from political leaders, civil society representatives, and officials, many of whom expressed support for the proposal.
The JPC is currently considering the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024. These measures aim to align the election cycles of the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies to enable simultaneous polls.
In September 2024, the Union Cabinet had approved recommendations of the High-Level Committee on Simultaneous Elections chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind. The panel suggested a two-step plan to move towards simultaneous elections.
In the first step, simultaneous elections would be held for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. The second step proposes synchronising Municipal and Panchayat polls with these elections, ensuring they are conducted within a hundred days of Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.
The Committee had also recommended a single electoral roll and common Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) for elections across all three levels of government. It said these measures would help enhance transparency, inclusivity, voter convenience and public trust in the electoral process.
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