Election Reforms Committees in India

India’s electoral system was largely free from any major flaw till the fourth general elections (1967). The distortions in its working appeared, for the first time, in the fifth general elections (1971) and these got multiplied in the successive elections, especially in those held in the eighties and thereafter. Many a time, the Election Commission expressed its concern and anxiety for removing obstacles in the way of free and fair polls. It had made a number of recommendations and repeatedly reminded the government the necessity of changing the existing laws to check the electoral malpractices.

Some of the key classic committees towards electoral reforms in the country include: Tarkunde Committee Report (1975), Goswami Committee Report (1990), Election Commission’s recommendations (1998), Indrajit Gupta Committee Report (1998). Here is a summary of these reports:

Tarkunde / J.P. Committee (1975)

Jayprakash Narayan on behalf of the Citizens For Democracy had appointed a committee to study and report on scheme for electoral reforms in 1974. The members of the committee were V.M. Tarkunde, M.R. Masai, etc. and it is known as J.P. Committee or Tarkunde committee. The important recommendations of the Tarkunde Committee are as follows:

• The election commission should be a three member body.
• The minimum age of voting should be 18 years.
• The TV and radio should be placed under the control of autonomous statutory corporation.
• A voter’s council should be formed in as many constituencies as possible which can help in free and fair election.

Goswami committee (1990)

In accordance with the Janata Dal’s election commitment, the national front govt. announced in the Lok Sabha on May 4, 1990.The major recommendations were as follows:

• Time limit for bye-elections.
• Increase in deposits from independents.
• A check on advertisements on new papers and strengthening of the election commission.
• A series of legislative measures should be set up to eradicate booth-capturing rigging and intimidating.
• The committee also called for amendment of the anti-defection law to restrict disqualification.

Indrajit Gupta committee on state funding of elections (1998)

Indrajit Gupta was the chairman of the all-party parliamentary committee on state funding of elections. The 8-member committee that set up by the all-party conference in may, 1998, submitted its report in January, 1999 with the following recommendations:

• State funding should be in kind, that is, no financial support is to be given to parties and also, part of the financial burden of the parties should be initially borne by the state.
• A Rs. 600 crore contribution from the center and an equal amount by the states, annually, towards an election corpus fund for the purpose.
• Only EC- recognized political parties should be given the state support in terms of printing material and facilities; electronic media time; vehicles and fuel etc.
• Political parties should compulsorily submit their annual accounts to the income tax department, showing their receipts and expenditure failing which the party or the candidate foregoes the state support.
• Complete account of the election expenditure should be filled by the parties to the EC.
• All donations above Rs. 10,000 by the parties should be in the form of cheque/draft and the names of the donors should be disclosed in the accounts.
• Ban on donations by government companies for political purposes will continue, but whether other companies can donate or not is to be determined by the parliament.

The election commission has produced a comprehensive set of proposals regarding electoral reforms and implemented many of the recommendations of the above committees.