SALIENT FEATURES OF ORDINANCE ON ELECTORAL REFORMS
The Representation of
People (Amendment) Ordinance, 2002, promulgated by the President
on August 24, 2002, has been notified in the Gazette of India
and numbered as Ordinance No. 4 of the year 2002. It has already
come into force with effect from August 24, 2002.
The Ordinance, which
seeks to amend the Representation of People Act, 1951 with retrospective
effect from May 2, 2002 (the date of Supreme Court judgement),
gets over the difficulties created by the Supreme Court judgement
of May 2, 2002 and the consequential orders of June 28, 2002,
issued by the Election Commission of India to implement the impugned
judgement.
All elections or bye-elections
to Parliament or State Legislatures, henceforth, will be subject
to the Ordinance.
The Ordinance provides
that statement of asset and liabilities will be a post-election
matter to be submitted to the presiding officers of both Houses
of Parliament and State Legislature, as the case may be, by the
elected members only within 90 days from the date they take the
oath as elected members. Such information will be required in
terms of rules made under sub-section 3 of Section 75A of the
Representation of the People Act, 1951. Any willful contravention
of the rules by elected candidate will be dealt with in the same
manner as a breach of privilege of the Houses of Parliament and
State Legislature, as the case may be.
Besides, Section 125A
has been incorporated to punish a candidate who himself or through
his proposer fails to furnish information relating to sub-section
(1) of Section 33A or for concealment of any information, to be
punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six
months or with fine or with both.
After Section 33 of the
Representation of the People Act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to
as the principal Act), the following section shall be inserted
to provide for voters right to information, namely:
"33A. (I) A
candidate shall, apart from any information which he is required
to furnish, under this act or the rules made thereunder, in his
nomination paper delivered under sub-section (I) of Section 33,
also furnish the information as to whether-
(i) he is accused of
any offence punishable with imprisonment for two years or more
in a pending case in which a charge has been framed by the court
of competent jurisdiction;
(ii) he has been convicted
of an offence [other than any offence referred to in sub-section
(3), of Section 8] and sentenced to imprisonment for one year
or more.
(2) The candidate or
his proposer, as the case may be, shall, at the time of delivering
to the returning officer the nomination paper under sub-section
(I) of Section 33, also deliver to him an affidavit sworn by the
candidate in a prescribed form verifying the information specified
in sub-section (I).
(3) The returning officer
shall, as soon as may be after the furnishing of information to
him under sub-section (I), display the aforesaid information by
affixing a copy of the affidavit, delivered under sub-section
(2), at a conspicuous place at his office for the information
of the electors relating to a constituency for which the nomination
paper is delivered".
3. After Section 33A
of the principal Act as so inserted, the following Section shall
be inserted and shall be deemed to have been inserted with effect
from the 2nd day of May, 2002, namely:
"33B, Notwithstanding
anything contained in any judgement, decree or order of any court
or any direction, order or any other instruction issued by the
Election Commission, no candidate shall be liable to disclose
or furnish any such information, in respect of his election, which
is not required to be disclosed or furnished under this Act or
the rules made thereunder".
Besides, the existing
provisions of conviction by courts in criminal cases for disqualification
of candidates will continue to be the basis for rejection of nominations.
The Ordinance follows
a consensus of all political parties to this effect. A Bill listed
for introduction in the Lok Sabha on August 12, 2002 could not
be introduced as the Parliament was adjourned since die on that
day without transacting any business.
