Election Commission’s appeal to the government: Ban contesting elections in more than one seat, impose a fine on those who do so

The Election Commission has appealed to the central government to re-implement the nearly two-decade-old proposal. The commission has insisted on amending the law to bar candidates from contesting more than one seat. The commission also said that those vacating a constituency and holding by-elections should be fined heavily if the candidate does not do so.

During a recent interaction with the Legislative Secretary in the Law Ministry, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar pushed for this amendment, first proposed in 2004.

what is the current law
Under the existing law, a candidate is allowed to contest elections from two different constituencies in general elections, by-elections and elections to be held in two years. If a person is elected from more than one seat, that person can hold only one of the seats he has won.

This was amended before
In 1996, the Representation of the People Act was amended to prevent a person from contesting from more than two seats. Prior to the amendment there was no restriction on the number of constituencies from which a candidate could contest. The poll panel proposed amendments to certain sections of the RP Act in 2004 to ensure that a person cannot contest from more than one constituency at a time.

Extra expenditure on the government increases
The poll panel is of the view that this penalty amount should also be changed. The Commission is of the view that when a candidate contests from two seats, it is necessary that he has to vacate one of the two seats. In order to hold by-elections on the vacant seats, the financial burden unnecessarily increases on the exchequer, manpower and other resources. Also, injustice would have been done to the voters of the area from where the candidate quits.

The Law Commission, which advises the government on complex legal issues, backed the proposal to ban candidates from more than one seat. However, the Law Department rejected the second proposal of the Election Commission i.e. depositing the amount to be spent for conducting the bypoll.