Law Commission Recommendations on Electoral Reforms

Law Commission


Recommendations on Electoral Reforms

on Financing Elections

on Anti-defection Law

1. Commission recommends that power to disqualify a member under this law should rest with President (or Governor) instead of speaker/chairman. President (or Governor) should act on the advice of ECI.

on Election Commission

1. The removal procedure of the two ECs should be same as that of CEC (Art 324)
2. the appointment of ECs+CEC should be by a collegium or selection committee consisting of PM,LoP(or leader of largest opposition party) and CJI. Elevation of an EC to CEC on basis of seniority, unless there are compelling reasons, which needed to recorded in writing. 
3. ECI should be provided with a permanent and independent secretariat as in the case of LS and RS to improve the independence of ECI (Art 324)

on Paid News, Political Advertisements etc.

RPA needs to amended

1. should be defined in RPA
2. punishments (as electoral offence) should be prescribed so as to lead to disqualification of offender as candidates
3. disclosure of political advertisement should be mandatory

on Compulsory Voting

Commission does not recommend this because of following reasons

1. being undemocratic
2. illegitimate
3. expensive
4. difficult to implement
5. unable to improve quality political participation and awareness

Financial Inclusion

It is the inclusion of people in the formal (institutional) financial system, so that everyone (especially weaker and marginal sections) to get access to basic financial services (money deposit, credit, insurance, pension, remittance facility etc.)

Different entities are engaged -
Financial intermediaries (act as a bridge between people needing financial services)

1. Banks
2. NBFCs

Schemes/ Programs for Financial Inclusion

PM Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)

Objective : To achieve financial inclusion

Launched on : 28th Aug, 2014

Salient Features

• at least one one basic banking account for every household
• Financial Literacy
• access to credit and insurance
• account holder will get
• a RuPay debit card having in-built accident cover of 1 lakh.
• life insurance cover of 30000 to those opening account before Jan 26, 2015

Issues/ Observations

• As on 28th jan, 67.5% accounts were with zero balance
• As on 28th jan, 12.31 cr bank accounts had been opened
• Guinness world record for opening most bank accounts in the week starting 23rd aug.
• Jaitley in March : next phase of JDY will focus on mobilizing savings in order to check the declining savings rate. This will be done by progressive use of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), increasing financial literacy and creating universal social security cover for all citizens, especially the poor, under-privileged and workers in unorganized sector

ATMs

• Help in Financial inclusion 
• Bank ATMs
• Brown Label ATMs
• White Label ATMs

Banking Correspondence Agents/ Bank Saathi

Nachiket Mor Committee

This committee was set up by RBI in Sep, 2014 and one of the major agenda for it was Financial Inclusion. It made following recommendations in this regard

Ordinance in legislatures

Ordinance - What is it?

It is like a legislative act/ bill. It has the same force and effect. Only difference - These are temporary in nature. These have to be replaced by a suitable act in future.

Who can do it?

Executive Head i.e. President (by Art. 123) (Governor in case of states (by Art. 213)) can promulgate ordinance, subject to four constraints -

1. Only when both or any of the house is not in session (i.e. when in recess). So, it is not a power legislative power.
2. Only when President is satisfied that immediate action is required. In Cooper case (1970), SC held that President's satisfaction can be questioned in the court on the ground of malafide. So it is justiciable.
3. This ordinance is just like a law i.e. 
1. it can deal with only on Union list/ concurrent list subjects
2. subject to all those limitations that of a law
4. The ordinance must be laid before the house once it reassembles. 3 course of action can follow
1. gets approved - become an act.
2. Parliament takes no action - the ordinance ceases to operate on the expiry of six weeks from the reassembly of Parliament
3. gets disapproved by Parliament resolution - ceases to operate from the date of disapproval 

Some more points

• maximum life of an ordinance can be six months and six weeks 
• In case the ordinance lapses, the acts done under it remain valid and effective.
• President also can withdraw an ordinance at any time.
• This ordinance related power of President is not a discretionary power. 
• Ordinance can be retrospective.
• It can repeal or modify any previous law or ordinance.
• It cannot amend the constitution.
• In British India, Viceroy was empowered with the power to issue ordinances by the Indian Councils Act, 1861. 
• Other than that, ordinance making power is not found in modern democratic world such as USA or UK.

After the Ordinance is Promulgated...

• The government attempts to replace the ordinance with a suitable bill/ act. 
• In this scenario, Rules of Business in Lok Sabha requires a statement explaining the emergency situation also to be placed before the house.

Recent Developments

The NDA government which came to power at the center in May 2015, has majority in Lok Sabha, but falls way short of the half-way mark in the Rajya Sabha.

This has led to promulgation of a number of ordinances since then. Notable among them are -

1. Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Ordinance, 2014 (Sep, re-promulgated in Dec)
2. Land Acquisition
3. The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014
4. TRAI (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014
5. Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 2015
6. Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015
7. Citizenship (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 - converted into act in budget session

President's Concern

References

1. Laxmikanth

2. PRS Blog