Harish Salve part of High Level Committee constituted by Central government to examine 'One Nation One Election'

The Central government's Law Ministry on Saturday constituted an eight-member High Level Committee (HLC) under the chairmanship of former President Ram Nath Kovind to examine the issue of simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and State legislative assemblies..Senior Advocate Harish Salve is one among the members of the HLC. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress Leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission NK Singh, Lok Sabha’s Former Secretary General Dr Subhash C Kashyap and former Chief Vigilance Commissioner Sanjay Kothari are the other members of the Committee.“In view of the above and that in the national interest it is desirable to have simultaneous elections in the country, the Government of India hereby constitutes a High Level Committee to examine the issue of simultaneous elections and make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections in the country,” the resolution said.It further added that Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal shall attend the meetings of the Committee as a Special Invitee.Niten Chandra, Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Legal Affairs shall be secretary to the HLC..The Committee will examine and make recommendation for holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies, Municipalities and Panchayats, keeping in view the existing framework under the Constitution of India and other statutory provisions, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice said. It will also examine and recommend specific amendments to the Constitution of India, the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and other Rules, which would require amendments for holding simultaneous elections..As per the resolution, the Committee will suggest a framework for “synchronisation of elections” and the phases and time frame within which simultaneous elections may be held if they cannot be held in one go.“The HLC shall commence functioning immediately and make recommendations at the earliest. The headquarters of the HLC shall be at New Delhi,” it was stated.The HLC may decide its own procedure for conducting its meetings and may also hear and entertain all persons and representations..The Union government said that the elections to the House of the People and Legislative Assemblies of States were mostly held simultaneously from the years 1951-52 to 1967 after which the “cycle got broken” and now they are held almost every year and within a year too, at different times.As per the government, it results in “massive expenditure by the government and other stakeholders, diversion of security forces and other electoral officers engaged in such elections from their primary duties for significantly prolonged periods.” .The resolution said that such a situation causes disruption in developmental work on account of prolonged application of Model Code of Conduct.The resolution also noted that the Law Commission of India in its 170th report on 'Reforms of the Electoral Laws' observed that the "cycle of elections every year, and in the out of season, should be put an end to". The Law Commission’s report also said that the holding of a separate election to a Legislative Assembly should be an exception and not the rule and that such rule ought to be “one election once in five years for Lok Sabha and all the Legislative Assemblies.”The government in the resolution also said that in the national interest, it is desirable to have simultaneous elections..[Read Law Ministry Resolution]