2013 Amendment to RoPA, Jan Chowkidar and Lily Thomas Case

The Jan Chowkidar (People’s watch) is a Patna based NGO. Its plea in Supreme Court had created a lots of political drama back in 2013. The plea was around the Sections 62 of the RoPA 1951. Section 62 of the ..

Various Amendments of Representation of Peoples Acts

The Representation of Peoples Acts have been amended for several times, often witnessing a progressive improvement in the election process and sometimes reflecting the tussle between the executive and judiciary. The notable changes made in various amendments are as follows: ..

Regulatory Framework on Political Parties in India

In the constitution, the only reference to political parties is found in the 10th schedule (disqualification). Framing and administering the rules for political parties comes under EC.  EC has the ultimate power to register or deny the registration of any ..

Voting Rights of Defence Personnel in India

The Supreme Court of India on March 24 2014, directed the Election Commission to allow the Armed Forces voters to vote like general electors in the places of their posting(only in peace areas and not on border areas). It should ..

Voting rights of Overseas Electors and Migrants

India has a huge population of citizens known as non-resident Indian (NRIs) living abroad temporarily or permanently on account of education, employment and other related reasons. It has been estimated that there are 25 million NRIs across the world. Earlier, ..

Universal Adult Suffrage in India

The right of the people to vote and elect their representatives is called franchise. Adult franchise means that the right to vote should be given to all adult citizens without the discrimination of caste, class, colour, religion or sex. It ..

Merits and Demerits of Direct and Indirect Elections

In direct elections, people directly vote for the candidates and elect their representatives. The following are examples of direct elections in which people over the age of 18 years participate by casting their votes: Lok Sabha elections, in which the ..

Restriction on Number of Seats to Contest in Elections in India

Section 33(7) of the RPA permits a candidate to contest any election (parliamentary, assembly, biennial council, or bye-elections) from up to two constituencies, presumably to accord greater flexibility to candidates and increase their chances of winning a seat. Sub-section (7) ..