India News | Salve Endorses ONOE Bill Before Parliament Panel, Ex Justice Shah Terms It Violative of Constitution: Sources
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Two noted legal experts on Monday offered contrasting takes on the simultaneous election bill as senior advocate Harish Salve asserted at a parliamentary committee meeting that the proposed law meets the constitutional requirements while former Delhi High Court chief justice A P Shah said it may face legal challenges, sources said.
New Delhi, Mar 17 (PTI) Two noted legal experts on Monday offered contrasting takes on the simultaneous election bill as senior advocate Harish Salve asserted at a parliamentary committee meeting that the proposed law meets the constitutional requirements while former Delhi High Court chief justice A P Shah said it may face legal challenges, sources said.
The sources said Shah, a former law commission chairman, faulted the bill on several counts, including the power given to the Election Commission to recommend postponing state assembly polls.
Shah, a couple of MPs said, claimed that the bill was violative of the Constitution, democratic principles and federal structure.
Salve, however, rejected the arguments that the one-nation-one-election (ONOE) bills fly in the face of the Constitution's basic structure and federal principles.
He said the bills do not curb people's voting rights, adding that the constitutional amendments proposed by one of the proposed laws are very much within the bounds of the Constitution, the sources said.
Both Salve and Shah took questions from the members of the committee headed by BJP MP P P Chaudhary separately in a nearly five-hour sitting.
Chaudhary described the meeting as "positive", noting that members had a chance to ask questions and seek clarifications from them. While Salve took around three hours, Shah's session lasted for two hours, he added.
Salve was also one of the members of the high-level committee headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind that recommended simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly elections.
Shah was among the legal experts whose views were sought by the committee as well, and he is believed to have expressed his disapproval of the ONOE proposal even as a big majority of experts favoured it.
Shah, the sources said, told the committee that assembly elections should be held for a full five-year term. The bill proposes that once the law for simultaneous elections is notified, then polls for all state assemblies will be held along with the next parliamentary election irrespective of the length of their remaining terms.
He did not support the view that the simultaneous polls would lead to the saving of large amounts of public money, the sources said.
Asked about the alternative to the proposals of the bills, Shah said he would be sharing his views with the committee later.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)