RPA:
ü
India is a Democratic country
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Elections are conducted periodically
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Candidates contest in the elections
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There is a necessity to control and
monitor the candidates
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Articles 324 to 329 of the
Constitution deals with the electoral system in our country
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Constitution allows Parliament to
make provisions in all matters relating to elections to the Parliament and
State Legislatures.
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The laws like RPA Act 1950, RPA
Act 1951 and Delimitation Commission Act of 1952 were enacted by the Parliament
RPA
1950 provides for
1.
Qualification of voters.
2.
Preparation of electoral rolls.
3.
Delimitation of constituencies.
4.
Allocation of seats in the Parliament
and state legislatures.
Representation
of Peoples Act 1951:
ü This act was enacted before first
general elections (1951-1952)
ü It
provides for the actual conduct of elections in India.
ü The act
also deals with details like qualification and disqualification of members of
both houses of Parliament and the state legislatures
ü Model of
conduct
Highlights
1. Actual conduct of elections.
2. Administrative machinery for conducting elections.
3. Poll.
4. Election offences.
5. Election disputes.
6. By-elections.
7. Registration of political parties.
The
RPA act, since is pivotal in preventing criminals being elected as
representatives, is always quoted by Supreme Court and High Court in various
judgments.
ü July 10, 2013: Supreme
Court struck down Section 8(4) of the Representation of People’s (RP) Act
ü July 2013: SC upholds
Patna High Court judgment debarring persons in judicial and police custody from
contesting elections (Section 62 (5) of the Representation of the People Act
1951).
ü Convicted or not, rule applies to those in jail and
police custody; not applicable to those out on bail. The Bench said: “We
have heard counsel for the political parties and we do not find any infirmity
in the findings of the High Court in the impugned common order that a person
who has no right to vote by virtue of the provisions of Section 62 (5) of the
Representation of the People Act 1951 is not an elector and is therefore not
qualified to contest the election to the House of the People or the Legislative
Assembly of a State.
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- The Representation of the
People (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013 was introduced in the
Rajya Sabha on August 23, 2013. It was passed by the Rajya Sabha on
the same day. The Bill seeks to amend the Representation of People
Act, 1951 (RPA, 1951). The two key changes brought about by the Bill
are:
- Even if a person is prohibited
from voting due to being in police custody or in jail, as long as his
name is entered on the electoral roll he shall not cease to be an
elector. This implies that he can file nomination for an election.
- The definition of
“disqualified” in the Act has been amended. Currently, the definition
of disqualified means disqualified for either being chosen as or being
a Member of Parliament or a State Legislature. The amendment adds a
ground to the definition that the disqualification has to be due to
conviction for certain specified offences and can be on no other
ground. Conviction for one of these offences would result in the
person’s name being removed from the electoral roll and he would cease
to be an elector.
- This amendment Bill seeks to
address the situation arising out of the Supreme Court’s judgment.
- On July 10, 2013, the Supreme
Court ruled that a person, who is in jail or in police custody, cannot
contest elections to legislative bodies. The RPA, 1951 states that any
contestant to an election to legislative bodies has to be an “elector”,
i.e., his name should be on the electoral roll and he is not subject
to any of the disqualifications mentioned in Section 16 of the
Representation of People Act, 1950. Among other things, that section
disqualifies anyone from being on the electoral roll if he is
disqualified from voting under the provisions of any law relating to
corrupt practices and other offences in relation to elections. Another
provision in the RPA, 1951 says that anyone in prison or on the lawful
custody of the police (other than preventive detention) is not
entitled to vote.
- The Supreme Court concluded
that a person in jail or police custody is not entitled to vote, and
therefore, is not an elector, and thus, cannot contest elections.
A notable amendments is the Representation of the People
(Amendment) Act, 1966 (47 of 1966), which abolished the election tribunals
and transferred the election petitions to the High Courts and orders can be
appealed to Supreme Court of India.
According to law, being public servants elected
representatives, MLAs or MPs, cannot hold an office of profit under section
9 (A) of the Representation of People's Act and Article 191 (E) of the
Constitution.
Certain Instances:
·
Former state
cabinet minister, Jagir Kaur was booked under Section 123 of the act
for bribing voters after the police seized 183 cases of liquor from the
vehicles.
·
The Allahabad
high court invalidated found Indira Gandhi, who was the then Prime
Minister, guilty on the charge of misuse of government machinery for her
election campaign.
·
Umlesh Yadav is
the first politician to be disqualified by the Election Commission for
a period of three years for suppression of her election expenses incurred
when she was elected as an MLA to the Bisauli constituency
in the UP Assembly elections in 2007.
·
Two UP MLAs,
Bajrang Bahadur Singh and Uma Shankar Singh, were disqualified in January
2015 due to holding government contracts
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ü NOTA
ü VVPAT
(Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail)
www.OnlineIAS.com