Justice KM Joseph Expresses Concerns About 'One Nation One Election' Proposal, Impending Delimitation

Former Supreme Court Justice K.M. Joseph expressed serious concerns about the proposed "One Nation, One Election" policy and impending delimitation in India. While criticising the prevalent issue of defection, he highlighted the risk of the democratic government being rooted out prematurely. In such a scenario, if simultaneous elections take place for Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies, then the State will have to endure the President's rule and wait for the next five years for elections to take place. “Now, some of the political changes that I foresee…Two of them might be of great importance. The first is One Nation, One Election touted by the party in power. It has a background. The first election was held in 1952, then in 1957, 1962 and 1967. In all these elections, we had one nation one election. It's not a new idea….Now, the party in power says that it is intended to be brought back. This is one of the official promises, I think….” “Now, there are various objections to this. If you introduce this, I have no other no order word for the horrific practice of defection taking place in our country. The practice of elected representatives having no morality, to be bought like chattels….the kind of money that changes hands, reportedly…we are discussing the Constitution and the changes. One of the biggest changes is the lack of morality shown by our public representatives. Kindly consider the train of events set in motion. A democratically elected government is rooted out….If such a thing happens in a state after one nation, one election, they'll have to wait for 5 years. President rule will come. Is that in consonance with the basic democratic ethos? I would think not.” Justice Joseph was speaking at a National Conference on “Constitution in a Changing India”. This is a three-day conference and today marked the second day of the same. Justice Joseph was invited as a Chief Guest at the conference. Moving forward, he spoke about another concern, i.e., delimitation, the process of redrawing the boundaries of electoral constituencies based on population changes, another area of concern, i.e., delimitation. In 1973, the process was was deferred for 25 years. Following this, the process was further put off by successive governments, including Prime Minister Vajpayee, and this period is going to end in 2026. “When that happens, states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu are going to lose the number of constituencies that they have and states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where the population is not controlled will have more constituencies. What will be the state of federalism in India? What will happen to the concept of Union of India as was contemplated?,” Justice Joseph added. Lastly, he said that the coming government will have to do consider and do something about it. Good governance upholding the rule of law, constitutionalism, constitutional morality, a fearless independent and totally honest judiciary are the rights of the people of India., he said. Click here to watch the videoElection Commission Doing Greatest Disservice If It Doesn't Act In Time Against Use Of Religion For Votes : Justice KM JosephI'm Shocked When I See Some Of The Media;They Have Duty To Raise People's Issues : Justice KM Joseph

Justice KM Joseph Expresses Concerns About 'One Nation One Election' Proposal, Impending Delimitation

Gyanvi Khanna

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