Political Parties and Electoral Reforms: Laws and PYQs

Political parties are not mentioned in the original text of the Constitution, yet nothing in Indian democracy works without them. They choose candidates, write manifestos, organise the vote, form governments and sit in opposition. The law reaches them through the Representation of the People Act, 1951, through the Election Commission of India, which draws its authority from Article 324, and through the Tenth Schedule, which punishes defection. Electoral reform is the continuing attempt to make this party-based competition free, fair and honest. Examiners like the topic because every fact in it is a date, a section, a schedule or a case name.

Registration and the party system

India has a multi-party system with national parties, state parties and a large number of registered unrecognised parties. A party is registered with the Election Commission under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and the application must contain an undertaking of true faith and allegiance to the Constitution, to socialism, secularism and democracy, and to the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India. Registration brings tax benefits and the right to a common symbol if the party is later recognised. Section 29C of the same Act obliges a party to report contributions above the statutory threshold of twenty thousand rupees, and the Commission may refuse a name that offends religious sentiment or copies an existing party.

Recognition as a national or a state party

Recognition is granted under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, and it alone gives a party a reserved symbol across the country or across a state.

Disputes between splinter groups over the name and symbol are decided by the Commission under paragraph 15 of the Order, and the Supreme Court approved its three-test approach of aims, party organisation and legislative strength in Sadiq Ali versus Election Commission of India in 1971.

The Tenth Schedule and defection

The Constitution (Fifty-second Amendment) Act, 1985 added the Tenth Schedule, which disqualifies a legislator who voluntarily gives up the membership of the party on whose ticket the seat was won, or who votes against the party whip. The Speaker or the Chairman decides, and Kihoto Hollohan versus Zachillhu in 1992 held that the decision is open to judicial review. The Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Act, 2003 deleted the protection once given to a split of one-third of the members, so only a merger of two-thirds survives, and it also capped the council of ministers at fifteen per cent of the strength of the House.

Reforms already carried out

• The Constitution (Sixty-first Amendment) Act, 1988 lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen.
• Electronic voting machines were first used in 1982 in the Paravur assembly constituency of Kerala and were used everywhere by 2004; the paper trail of the VVPAT followed.
• Photo identity cards for electors were introduced in 1993 under Chief Election Commissioner T. N. Seshan.
• Union of India versus Association for Democratic Reforms in 2002 made candidates disclose criminal cases, assets and educational qualifications, now in the affidavit of Form 26 under Section 33A.
• Lily Thomas versus Union of India in 2013 ended the practice of staying disqualification by filing an appeal, so conviction disqualifies at once.
• The None of the Above option came from People's Union for Civil Liberties versus Union of India in 2013.
• Section 126A, inserted in 2009, bars the publication of exit polls during the period notified by the Commission.
• The Supreme Court struck down the electoral bond scheme in February 2024 as a violation of the voter's right to information under Article 19(1)(a).

Committees and pending demands

The Tarkunde Committee of 1975, the Dinesh Goswami Committee of 1990, the Vohra Committee of 1993 on the criminal-political nexus, the Indrajit Gupta Committee of 1998 on partial state funding of elections in kind, and the Law Commission in its one hundred seventieth and two hundred fifty-fifth reports have all written on reform. Their main pending demands are state funding, inner-party democracy and audited party accounts, a bar on candidates against whom charges have been framed for grave offences, a ban on paper surrogate advertising and paid news, a totalizer to hide booth-wise voting patterns, and the simultaneous conduct of parliamentary and assembly elections.