Ex-CJI UU Lalit backs 'One Nation, One Election', calls for phased implementation

New Delhi: Former Chief Justice of India UU Lalit on Tuesday suggested that simultaneous polls should be rolled out in a phased manner as he shared his views to a Joint Parliamentary Committee studying the two bills for 'One Nation One Election (ONOE)', sources said.

They added that Lalit in his remarks said the concept of simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections was good in theory but several factors need to be addressed for its smooth implementation.

Besides Lalit, former Law Commission of India chairperson Ritu Raj Awasthi also shared his views as the panel began consulting experts and stakeholders.


Opposition members criticised the concept with Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra claiming that ONOE will "weaken democracy" by tinkering with tenure of legislatures and impinge on people's rights, the sources said.

During the consultations, a BJP ally wondered if the gap of five years between two elections will weaken elected representatives' accountability to people, they added.

IAS officer Niten Chandra, secretary of the high-level Kovind committee, and EM Sudarsana Natchiappan, senior advocate and former Congress MP who had headed in 2015 a parliamentary committee that favoured simultaneous polls, also appeared before the panel. But these two could not share their views due to paucity of time and are expected to do that later.

Awasthi spoke in detail about the benefits of the simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly elections in terms of savings and boost to development.

The parliamentary committee's agenda for the February 25 meeting is briefly listed as "interaction with legal experts". The high-level committee headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind was constituted by the Modi government on 'One Nation One Election' and it had in its voluminous report strongly batted for the concept. Subsequently, the Union cabinet accepted the committee's recommendations and the government tabled two bills, including one seeking to amend the Constitution in the Lok Sabha.