Union Govt moots common electoral roll for three levels of polls
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New Delhi: The Union government is on its path to making the state election commissions adopt a Common Electoral Roll (CER) for general, Assembly and local body elections, while a meeting with State Election Commissioners regarding the same is about to be scheduled, The Indian Express (TIE) reported.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice has held a scheduled meeting on the 'Status of Common Electoral Roll' for conducting elections in the country on Tuesday.
The committee headed by BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi was given a presentation on the status of the CER by the Legislative Department and representatives of the Election Commission.
But Trinamool Congress' Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Congress' Deepender Hooda, both members of the parliamentary committee, has opposed the proposal of CER, saying that it is an intervention by the Union into the states' powers.
They argued that the Union has no authority to stand over powers vested in State Election Commissions as per Constitution.
According to Article 243 K of the Constitution, the authority to prepare electoral rolls for all elections to the Panchayats rests on the State Election Commissions, but the Union government so far does not wish to amend the law but wants the states to adopt a CER for elections on all the three tiers.
Last week, TIE had reported the virtual meeting conducted by the Prime Minister's office about CER with Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and Election Commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey.
TIE reports that calls for CER were raised before as far back as in 2002, when a National Commission headed by Justice MN Venkatachaliah recommended the same for all Panchayati Raj, Assembly and Parliament elections.
The Second Administrative Reforms Commission's report in 2007 also recommended Assembly electoral rolls for local body elections without State Election Commission's revision. Later Law Commission of India, in its 255th report on Electoral Reforms in 2015, favoured CER for general, Assembly and local body elections.