PIL in Delhi HC asking to hold LS, SLA and ULB polls together

NEW DELHI: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in Delhi High Court requesting guidance to the Centre and Election Commission of India (ECI) to determine the viability of conducting the elections to the Lok Sabha (LS), State Legislative Assembly (SLA) and municipal polls simultaneously as it will save money, manpower, and limit election paralysis caused by the imposition of Model Code of Conduct.

The PIL says that holding elections to the House of People, SLA, and civic bodies simultaneously would reduce the time and money spent on these elections. It would also reduce the need to deploy paramilitary forces, government staff and the election commission staff to organise polling booths, electronic voting machines (EVM), voter slips, etc several times.

The plea seeks an authoritative directive from the court to the Centre and ECI to explore the feasibility of conducting elections on Saturdays, Sundays and other holidays, thus, saving valuable time of schools, colleges, universities, service industries and manufacturing units.

Petitioner Ashwini Kumar, a practicing advocate of the Supreme Court and BJP leader, is seeking direction to implement recommendations of the Law Commission of India outlined in Report number 170, which says, “We must go back to the situation where the elections to Lok Sabha and all Legislative Assemblies are held at once.”

PIL argues that the imposition of the Model Code of Conduct also delays the implementation of developmental projects and welfare schemes of the central and state governments. Multiple elections consume valuable time which could be used in addressing governance issues. Therefore, elections to state assemblies whose terms are expiring in 2023 and 2024 should be clubbed together and should be held along with the Lok Sabha election in 2024, by extending and curtailing the tenures of concerned state Assemblies and local bodies.