Curtailing assembly tenures, parliament would run afoul of Constitution's basic structure: Singhvi
Abhishek Manu Singhvi
NEW DELHI: Senior lawyer
Abhishek Singhvi
questioned the constitutionality of various provisions of the bill on simultaneous elections, while former justice
Hemant Gupta
opposed some key provisions about curtailing of
assembly tenures
, and suggested alternatives.
Deposing before the joint
parliamentary committee
(JPC) vetting the legislation, according to diverse sources, Singhvi said curtailment of assembly tenures, as well as that of Parliament, would run afoul of the basic structure of the Constitution. He is reported to have termed it as compulsory reduction in the tenures of legislatures, which translates to tampering with the will of the people.
Hemant Gupta is learnt to have questioned the amendment to
Article 82
, as prescribed in the bill. In a written opinion, he has argued that an assembly should necessarily get a minimum of three years, before which it cannot be dissolved to synchronise its tenure with the Lok Sabha. He instead is said to have advocated that assembly tenures in such cases should be extended beyond their term to match with LS cycle.
Others who spoke before the panel were retired justices BS Chauhan (former Law Commission chairman) and SN Jha. The JPC, headed by PP Chaudhary, comprises MPs Kalyan Banerjee, Randeep Surjewala, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, P Wilson, Ghanshyam Tiwari, Sambit Patra, among others. Chauhan and Jha supported the bill, sources said.
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Singhvi, who is also a senior Congress MP, is said to have argued that the bill does not provide for seeking the assemblies' assent to reduce their tenures but a concurrence would be required under Article 368. He reportedly also pointed out that changing the tenure of assembly would have a bearing on the election of Rajya Sabha members from those states. He said ratification by states would be a must if the assembly tenure was being slashed.
Interestingly, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, sources said, asked if simultaneous polls would reduce the diversity of regional parties in states and at the Centre. She also asked if holding the polls together will result in similar outcomes in states and the Centre.
Sources said DMK MP Wilson told Chauhan that the law commission's report spoke about seeking assent of states while he was now arguing that it was not required. TheMP reportedly argued that not seeking states' concurrence went against the principle of cooperative federalism as the Centre is downgrading the states' rights just to sync the LS polls with assemblies.
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