Elections: Electoral process and delimitation

The Election Commission introduced Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) in 1993, under T.N. Seshan, to curb impersonation and bogus voting. Today every elector is issued an EPIC, and other notified documents can also be used at the booth. The other years mark different reforms: section 61A for EVMs came into force in March 1989, and the 2004 Lok Sabha election was the first held with EVMs in every constituency. The card has moved with technology: on National Voters' Day 2021 the Commission launched e-EPIC, a downloadable PDF version, and the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 allowed electors to share their Aadhaar number with the Electoral Registration Officer on a voluntary basis to clean up duplicate entries. In G. Niranjan (2023) the Commission told the Supreme Court that giving Aadhaar is not mandatory. An elector without an EPIC can still vote by showing one of the alternative photo documents notified by the Commission.

The RPA 1950 is the 'pre-election' Act: it provides for the allocation of seats in Parliament and the State Legislatures (First and Second Schedules), the delimitation of constituencies through orders, the qualifications of voters and the preparation of electoral rolls, along with the officers who prepare them. The RPA 1951 is the 'election and after' Act: conduct of elections, qualifications and disqualifications of members, corrupt practices, registration of parties and election disputes. The Delimitation Act, 2002 set up the last Delimitation Commission, and the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 provides legislatures for certain UTs. Section 16 of the RPA 1950 lists who cannot be registered: a non- citizen, a person declared of unsound mind by a competent court, or a person disqualified under election law.

Neither statement is correct. Corrupt practices are defined in section 123 of the RPA 1951, which lists bribery, undue influence, appeals on grounds of religion, race, caste, community or language, promotion of enmity, booth capturing and similar acts. Election disputes are dealt with in Part VI of the same 1951 Act (sections 79 to 122), which provides for election petitions in the High Court and appeals to the Supreme Court. The 1950 Act is confined to seats, rolls and voter qualifications. Both corrupt practices and electoral offences sit in Part VII of the 1951 Act: section 123 defines corrupt practices, which can void an election, while sections 125 to 136 define electoral offences, such as promoting enmity, booth capturing or removing ballot papers, which are crimes punished by courts. A single act can be both: promoting enmity on grounds of religion is a corrupt practice under 123(3A) and an offence under section 125.

Section 123 of the RPA 1951 lists the corrupt practices: bribery (123(1)), undue influence (123(2)), an appeal to vote or refrain from voting on grounds of religion, race, caste, community or language (123(3)), promotion of enmity between classes (123(3A)), hiring vehicles to carry voters, incurring expenses beyond the limit, and booth capturing (123(8)). In Abhiram Singh (2017) a seven-judge Bench read 123(3) to bar appeals based on the religion or caste of the voter as well. Section 8 deals with disqualification on conviction, section 77 with the account of election expenses and section 29A with registration of political parties. Abhiram Singh was decided on 2 January 2017 by a 4:3 majority; the minority held that the provision was about the candidate's religion only.

Statement 2 is correct: under section 81 of the RPA 1951, an election petition may be presented by a candidate or an elector within 45 days from the date of election of the returned candidate. Statement 1 is incorrect: under section 116A, an appeal against a High Court's order lies to the Supreme Court, to be filed within 30 days. The President comes in elsewhere: under Articles 103 and 192 he (or the Governor) decides whether a sitting member has become disqualified, on the Election Commission's opinion, and under section 8A the President decides on disqualification for a corrupt practice. Under section 86(1), the High Court must dismiss a petition that does not meet the filing requirements of sections 81, 82 or 117, such as the security for costs; so the 45-day limit is strictly enforced.

Corrupt practices are defined in section 123 of the RPA 1951, not in the 1950 Act. The RPA 1950 deals with the allocation of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Legislatures (First and Second Schedules), the preparation and revision of electoral rolls, the qualifications for registration as a voter (citizenship, age 18 on the qualifying date, ordinary residence) and the officers responsible for these tasks. Everything that concerns the conduct of the poll and its aftermath, including corrupt practices and election petitions, is in the 1951 Act. Since the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, section 14(b) has four qualifying dates in a year (1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October), so a young person can enrol soon after turning 18 instead of waiting a full year.

Both statements are correct. Section 20A of the RPA 1950, inserted by the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 2010, lets a citizen of India who has not acquired the citizenship of another country and is absent from his place of ordinary residence in India owing to employment, education or otherwise, be registered as an overseas elector in the constituency of the Indian address given in the passport. Overseas electors must vote in person at the polling station; proxy or postal voting for them has been proposed but not enacted. Overseas electors apply on Form 6A and must show their original passport at the polling station. A bill to let them vote through proxies, the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2017, was passed by the Lok Sabha in August 2018 but lapsed when that Lok Sabha was dissolved in 2019.

The Conduct of Election Rules were framed in 1961 by the Central Government, in consultation with the Election Commission, under section 169 of the RPA 1951. They govern nomination forms, the form of ballot papers and EVMs, voting procedure including postal ballots and proxies, counting and recount (Rule 63), and the maximum election expenditure (Rule 90). The RPA 1950 and 1951 are the parent Acts, and the first general election ran from October 1951 to February 1952, before these Rules existed. The Rules have been amended many times: Rules 49A to 49X, inserted in 1992, cover voting by EVMs, and Rule 49-O once let a voter record a decision not to vote, a route replaced in practice by the NOTA button after the PUCL judgment of 2013. Rule 49MA covers a voter's complaint that the VVPAT slip does not match the vote cast. So the 1961 Rules remain the working manual for polling day.

None of the statements is correct (d). Statement 1 is wrong: Article 71(2) says acts done by the President before the election is declared void stay valid. Statement 2 is wrong: the election cannot be put off because some Assemblies stand dissolved, and under Article 71(4) the poll cannot be questioned on that ground. Statement 3 is wrong: Article 111 sets no time limit for assent. The President may give assent, withhold it, or return a non-money Bill once.

Notice the recent debate. In 2025, a Supreme Court bench set timelines for Governors in a Tamil Nadu case, but on a Presidential Reference later that year, a Constitution Bench held that courts cannot impose such fixed timelines. This is why people speak of the President's pocket veto.

Answer as per the official UPSC answer key.

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Only statement 4 is correct (a). Statement 1 is wrong: only elected members of Parliament and of State Assemblies, including Delhi and Puducherry, vote; nominated members are left out. Statement 2 is wrong: an MLA's vote value is the State's 1971 population divided by its elected seats, then by 1,000, so more seats for the same population means a lower value. Statement 3 is wrong: a Kerala MLA's vote (152) is worth more than a Madhya Pradesh MLA's (131). Statement 4 is right: Puducherry's value (16) is higher than Arunachal's (8), for the reason given.

Notice that Uttar Pradesh has the highest value, 208, and Sikkim the lowest, 7. An MP's vote is the total value of all MLAs divided by the number of elected MPs, about 700.

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Statements 1 and 3 are correct (a). Statement 1 is right: under Rule 8 of the Lok Sabha's Rules of Procedure, the election of the Deputy Speaker is held on a date the Speaker fixes. Statement 2 is wrong: no rule ties the post to the opposition or the ruling party; giving it to the opposition is only a custom. Statement 3 is right: when presiding, the Deputy Speaker has the Speaker's full powers, and no appeal lies against his rulings. Statement 4 is wrong: the motion is moved by a member, not by the Speaker.

Notice that Article 93 says the Lok Sabha "shall" choose a Deputy Speaker, yet the post stayed vacant through the whole 17th Lok Sabha (2019–24). The Deputy Speaker sends any resignation to the Speaker.

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UPSC dropped this question from evaluation, so no answer was scored. The likely trouble was statement 2: Devi Lal did contest from three Lok Sabha seats in 1991 (Sikar, Rohtak and Ferozepur), but the wording was disputed. The current law is clear. Statement 1 is wrong: since 1996, Section 33(7) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 lets a candidate contest from at most two constituencies. Statement 3 is wrong: no rule makes the party pay for bye-elections; the Election Commission has only suggested that the candidate pay.

Notice that a winner of two seats must quit one within 14 days under Section 70. Before 1996, there was no limit on the number of seats.

UPSC dropped this question from evaluation; there is no official answer.

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Neither statement is correct (d). Statement 1 is wrong because Article 164(4) lets a non-member be a State minister for six months, but that person must be qualified to become an MLA. That requires a minimum age of 25, not just being a voter, who can be 18. Statement 2 is wrong because, under Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, a person sentenced to two years or more is disqualified from the date of conviction for the period of the sentence plus six years after release, not permanently.

In Lily Thomas (2013), the Court removed the protection that let sitting MPs and MLAs keep their seats while appealing. Notice the 2025 debate on a lifetime ban for convicted politicians, which the Centre opposed.

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Only statement 2 is correct (b). Statement 1 is wrong because it was the 39th Amendment (1975), passed during the Emergency, that added Article 329A. It placed the election of the Prime Minister and Speaker beyond the courts, after the Allahabad High Court set aside Indira Gandhi's election. The Supreme Court struck down part of it in Indira Gandhi v. Raj Narain (1975), and the 44th Amendment (1978) removed it. Statement 2 is right because the 99th Amendment (2014) set up the National Judicial Appointments Commission. In 2015, in the Fourth Judges case, the Court struck it down for violating judicial independence, part of the basic structure.

So the collegium system continues. Notice the ongoing debate on the Memorandum of Procedure for judicial appointments.

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