“The election commission of India has appointed transgender social activist GAURI SAWANT, as one of the 12 election ambassadors from Maharashtra . she is the first transgender election ambassadors.” – this is the headline from the year 2019 , which is in oneself reflecting the unbiased and fair nature of election commission of India .
PART XV of the constitution of India consists of Articles of elections . ARTICLE 324 OF THE CONSTITUTION PROVIDES THAT THE POWER OF SUPERINTENDENCE , DIRECTION AND CONTROL OF ELECTIONS TO PARLIAMENT , STATE LEGISLATURES, THE OFFICE OF PRESIDENT OF INDIA AND THE OFFICE OF VICE PRESIDENT OF INDIA SHALL BE VESTED IN THE ELECTION COMMISSION. In order to supervise the entire procedure and machinery for elections and for some other ancillary matters,the constitution provides for this body . it is an autonomous body , governed by ministry of law and justice , thus , it is independent of executive control to ensure a fair elections. It consists of a chief election commissioner and two other election commissioner , also president can determine the number of election commissioners , according to the ARTICLE 324(2) .
Getting to the past , election commission of India was formed on 25 January 1950 , later celebrated as national voter’s day . Its headquarters is in Delhi , Nirvachan sadan , ashoka road .
Originally it had only one commissioner but then in 1989 , general elections , two additional commissioners were appointed ; following this “ The election commissioner amendment act,1989” was adopted on 1st January 1909. The very first commissioner was Sukumar Sen (1950-1958) and recent executive is Sunil Arora , preceding Om Prakash Rawat . Its been seventy one years , election commission of india has performed tremendously in its responsibilities and duties .The election commission of india has advisory jurisdiction in terms of post-elections ineligibility of sitting members of the parliament and state legislature. Cases , where an individual is found guilty of malpractice at elections by the supreme and high court are referred to the ECI for its opinion of the said person’s disqualification . In such cases the judgement passed by the ECI is final and binding on the president and governor . it has also the power to ban any candidate who has not lodged an account of election expenses by the deadline and as per the law . ECI’s administrative powers include – allotting territorial areas for electoral constituencies in the country , organizing and amending electoral rolls and register eligible voters , informing dates and schedule of elections and scrutinize nomination papers , giving recognition to arties and assigning symbols to them .
After discussing the working and objectives of ECI , there’s no doubt at what percentage ECI is necessary for protection and preservation of Democracy. The very initial requirement or the symbol of a democratic country is , how the government is coming to the power , what’s the process and behind the idealistic philosophy of fair elections , what’s literally going on. Till the time election process is not fair, we loose the title of India as a Democratic country. And the reason behind that India is one of the leading democracies , ECI plays a very significant role , as as a monitor on elections and in recent years , commission has started to play the more active role to ensure greater participation of people. Its upholds the values enshrined in the constitution , equality, equity, impartiality , independence, : and rule of law in superintendence , direction, and control over electoral governance. ECI conducts elections with the highest standards of credibility , freenes, fairness, transparency, integrity, accountability, autonomy and professionalism. It also ensures participation of all eligible citizens in the electoral process in an inclusive voter centric and voter friendly environment .
There are several initiatives taken by ECI FOR FREE AND FAIR ELECTION , such as – introduction of voter ID’s to stop fraudulent voting , EVM (electronic voting machine) was brought to stop the violence due to booth capturing agenda , it also solved the logistical problem of printing paper ballots , transporting and safely storing them , and then physically counting millions of votes , to enhance transparency and credibility of the election process ,VVPAT was introduced with EVM at every polling station , SVEEP was introduced in 2009 which is the flagship program of the election commission of India for voter education , spreading voter awareness and promoting voter literacy in India as it is famously said by GEORGE JEAN NATHAN –“BAD OFFICIALS ARE ELECTED BY GOOD CITIZEN WHO DON’T VOTE” . NOTA (none of the above ) voting system was introduced to facilitate voters who support none of the above candidates . Totaliser was introduced , which is a mechanism in the voting machines in India to hide the booth wise voting patterns. Street plays and Braille equipped EVM’s were introduced in 2019 election for the awareness of rural , illiterate and blind voters. And multiple mobile apps were also launched .
Still there are some deficiencies in the institution , if we observe. In early 2021 , aletter to the president of India , a group of bureaucrats and diplomats , in the context of recent incidents , expressed concern over the EC’s “weak-kneed conduct” and the institution “suffering from a crisis of credibility today.” There are some significant issues with ECI such as – violation of code of conduct , flaws in the composition , allegations of partisans role , like ECI is favoring the ruling party , EVM got hacked and transfer of officials , ECI’s intervention in administrative decisions and others .
For the way forward , we can conclude some points like – constitutional protection should be given to the other election commissioners too , to avoid favouritism , there must be a cooling off period from any political or constitutional appointments for the retiring CEC’s and EC’s post retirement , the dependence on DOPT , law ministry must be reduced and ECI should have independent secretariat for itself and ECI must modernize itself technically and therefore must punish the people flaunting the MCC on social and visual audio platforms .