UPSC Mains 2022 GS Paper 2 Q15: model answer

The Model Code began in Kerala in 1960 as a set of rules that parties drew up for themselves. It has no statute behind it, yet it now governs every minister and candidate from the day elections are announced.

Evolution

• 1968: the Election Commission issued it nationally after consulting parties.
• 1979: a section on the party in power added: no new schemes, no use of official machinery.
• 1991 onwards: T.N. Seshan enforced it strictly; postponed polls, stopped official tours.
• 2001: the Supreme Court in Harbans Singh Jalal held it applies from the date of announcement.
• 2013: guidelines on manifestos after S. Subramaniam Balaji.
• 2014–24: rules for social media, the cVIGIL app (2018) for citizen complaints, and limits on campaigning in the last 48 hours.

ECI's role

• Article 324 grants superintendence, direction and control; the MCC is how ECI turns that power into daily rules.
• Tools: notices, censure, bans on campaigning (used against leaders of several parties), transfer of officials, countermanding polls.
• Monitoring expenditure, flying squads and paid news.

Problems

• No legal backing: violations are punished only through IPC or RP Act provisions.
• Long schedules (seven phases in 2024) stretch the Code for weeks and freeze governance.
• Criticism of uneven action against senior leaders; delay in deciding complaints.
• Hate speech and deepfakes on social media move faster than notices.

Way forward

• A Parliamentary standing committee (2013) suggested making it statutory; ECI prefers it flexible.
• Time-bound decisions on complaints, published reasons and equal treatment.
• Shorter, compact poll schedules.

The MCC shows that the ECI's authority comes from credibility, not statute. That credibility is renewed each time it acts evenly.