14 December 2022

Table of Content

Private member Bill seeks PM-led panel for selecting Chief Election Commissioner

GS-2: Appointment to various Constitutional Posts, Powers, Functions and Responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.

Recently, the private bill related to amendment in the appointment and functions of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commission India was introduced in the Lok Sabha.

The Election Commission of India (ECI)

• The ECI is an autonomous constitutional authority established in accordance with the Constitution on 25^th January 1950.
• It is responsible for administering election processes in India. 
• It administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies in India, and the offices of the President and Vice President in the country. 
• It derives authority from the Article 324 of the Indian Constitution, and subsequently enacted Representation of the People Act. 
• Composition:

• Originally the commission had only a Chief Election Commissioner.
• At present, it consists – Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners.

• In 1989, for the first time, two additional commissioners were appointed for temporary period.
• In 1993, the concept of multi-member Commission has been in operationalized consisting two additional Election Commissioners.

• The number of additional election commissioners is fixed by the President time-to-time.
• The decision is taken by the majority of voting i.e. all Election Commissioners have equal say in the decision making of the Commission.

• Appointed by: The President
• The conditions of service and tenure of office is determined by: The President
• The CEC and ECs have equal powers and receive equal salary, allowances and other perquisites, which are similar to those of a judge of the Supreme Court.
• Tenure of CEC: 6 years or till 65 years of age, whichever is earlier. (Provides security of tenure)
• Removal of CEC: He cannot be removed not be removed from his office except in like manner and on the like grounds as a Judge of the Supreme Court i.e. can be removed from office only through impeachment by Parliament.

• Except on recommendations of the CEC, Any other election commissioner or a regional commissioner cannot be removed from office.

Flaws in ECI

• The Constitution has not prescribed the qualifications (legal, educational, administrative or judicial) of the members of the Election Commission.
• The Constitution has not specified the term of the members of the Election Commission.
• The Constitution has not debarred the retiring election commissioners from any further appointment by the government.

The reforms implemented by T N Seshan

• In 1990, when T N Seshan became CEC, he implemented several reforms, which includes – 

• Identifying 150 malpractices during the elections
• To transform voting mechanism he introduced several guidelines including related to bribing, offering liquors, use of religions to get votes.
• He is the man behind issuance of voter id card and the model code of conduct.
• Put limitations the poll expenses of the candidates.

Proposed Key Amendments in the bill: 

• The bill seeks to establish a select committee consisting following members to select the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners.

• Headed by: The Prime Minister 
• Other Members: 

• Home Minister
• Leader of Opposition or floor Leader in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha
• Chief Justice of India
• Two senior-most judges of the Supreme Court.

• The bill envisages a fixed tenure of six years for the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners.

• It specifies three years term for the Regional Commissioners from the date of appointment.

• They should not be removed not be removed from his office except in like manner and on the like grounds as a Judge of the Supreme Court.
• They should not be eligible for reappointment under the Government of India, State Governments and the Constitution.
• The bill aims to set up a permanent independent secretariat of the Election Commission of India.
• The bill seeks to insert a new Art-328(a) to empower the Election Commission to “regulate, monitor and superintend” the internal functioning of all political parties, including internal elections of all registered political parties. 

• The Election Commission will prescribe Model Internal Code for all the political parties, till then they must be regulated in accordance with their respective constitution.
• With regards to their internal functions, failure of any political party to comply with the advisories, duration and instructions issued by the Election Commission will lead to withdrawn of the recognition of such political party as a State or National party including any other action as the Election Commission deems fit under section 16A of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment Order).
• The move will make functioning of the political parties more transparent, accountable and rule based.
• At present, there are 2,858 political parties registered with the EC – out of these 8 are national parties, 54 are State parties and 2,797 are unrecognized.

Case related to electoral reform in the ECI

• At present, the Supreme Court is hearing petitions on the need for reforms in the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners.

• It suggested that there is a need for a panel and not the council of ministers to recommend the names.

• The CEC must be an "independent and a man of character" and politically insulated.
• With present system of appointment of CEC, it is difficult for CEC to act against the Prime Minister because it will lead to complete breakdown of the system.

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What’s in World Bank’s new toolkit on making urban transport better for Indian women?

GS-1: Role of Women and Women’s Organization, Population and Associated Issues, Poverty and Developmental issues, Urbanization, their problems and their remedies.

Recently, the World Bank launched a “Toolkit on Enabling Gender Responsive Urban Mobility and Public Spaces in India”. The aim of the toolkit is suggesting ways to make public transport more inclusive of women’s travelling requirements in Indian cities.

About Toolkit

Benefits of toolkit

• The toolkit contains practical tools that can inform a wide set of policymakers as well as private or community-based organisations. 
• It also contains thematic issues that any individual women faces in day-to day life.
• It can act as a reference for any entity engaging in any work regarding public transport and urban mobility.
• It integrates a gender lens into everyday planning and development in order to make our cities safer and more accessible to women.

Importance of Gender lens in Public Transport

• Women from lower socio-economic groups are among the biggest users of public transport in Indian cities, who often travels shorter distances using multiple modes of transport.

• Unsafe, inconvenient and expensive urban mobility system put additional burden on them.

• Lack of safe, expensive and unreliable public transport has an adverse impact on women’s ability to access education and employment opportunity and consequently led to poorer life outcomes for them.

• The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) of India is among the lowest (Approx. 30% in 2019-20) in the world.
• Thus, distance from home impacts women’s choice of educational institutions and by implication their financial independence.

• Woman faces higher costs of travelling due to –

• Variety of responsibilities they need to fulfil, which creates “Trip chaining”.
• Longer routes which are perceived to be safer.

• All these factors amount together as “pink tax” that specifically burden women and impede them from making optimal decisions for themselves.

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