Heart and soul of our Indian constitution i.e. preamble that declares. India to be democratic and republic. All of us who are working for protection and upholding the civil rights of the citizens of the nation are intensely connected with the democratic party of the country . Democracy is one of the basic features of the constitution as held in the famous case of INDRA GANDHI V/S RAJ NARAYAN AIR 1975 SC 2299. Political decision is the contrivance through which a cutting edge stage makes among the citizens a sense of involvement and active participation in all the public affairs. It is through the norms and ceremonies that the authority of government combined with legitimacy and peaceful deliberate change of power to the new leaders is made sure of. Purity and opportunity of political role can be guaranteed provided that the appointive administration is the basic foundation of democracy and is placed beyond the compass of party government.
ELECTION word has its one of the symbolic representations that denotes the active participation of the people to make a government for them. All the voters by voting and franchise share their will and their changing expectations from the government and the kind of ideology. Voters are the main element of democracy and free and fair elections as they are the real stakeholders they vote for after analysing which can bring better development to the country . so on the day of august 15 1947 contesting free and fair election was one of the major tasks at that time. According to article 289 of the draft constitution. Later changed to article 324 and then for setting up the independent election commission was made effective under article 4 to 9.
Election is the process of choosing a person by voting for any post or office. According to representation of the people act 1951 election to fill a seat in either of the house of parliament or state this word has been mentioned or used in part XV of the indian constitution. One of the most essential elements was free and fair election . Regular election at regular intervals and in a fair manner is a part of basic structure of the constitution as the court held in the famous case of T.N. SHESHAN V/S UOI AIR 1995 SC 852. Election commission is the guardian of the free and fair election. So before every election the election commission issues guidelines for the code of conduct of political parties and their candidates . There are various examples where violations can be observed in the code of conduct responsible for the violation for their controversial remark in the campaign of Gujarat election 2017. In LD SYSTEMS V/S CHIEF ELECTION COMMISSIONER AIR 2006 KER 229 Kerala high court held that this limitation on the freedom is to ensure the free and fair election and the commission has the power to draw force under article 324of indian constitution.
There was an important process of registration of parties initiated from 1989 even the election commission of india has restricted the use of money that cannot be done to reduce the malpractices. In a case of registered society v/s UOI , it was pointed out that , in India, elections are fought on money. The court held that purity of election is the main component of democracy and the commission can ask political parties for details of the expenditure incurred by them and for what purpose there is a bar to the court for interference in the electoral matter? But when this state came then the question arises in everyone’s mind that if the commission is a tribunal . mainly held in the case of APHL conference , shillong v/s W.A. sangama and loud speaker for campaign is valid as decided in mohinder singh v/s chief election commissioner.
Criminalisation of politics is a huge and deep problem in India. In 2003, a law was passed that stated no to elections of criminal legislative bodies . however the same issue was continued as this is a deep rooted issue. Various laws were made as a candidates need to submit their affidavit, acquittal charges pending cases etc. all the information must be clearly informed to the public . clearly stated in UOI v/s association of democratic reform that the election commission shall take all the required info and they must scrutinize it and reject it if not competent to elect the election.if any information provided is not correct then the candidate can be penalized. The concept of negative voting came into existence in the case of PUCL v/s UOI (2003) 4 SCC 399 Where people can cast the negative votes and the politicians were included under the ambit of article 19 (1)(a).
At last but not least it must be acknowledged that the election commission of India has been considered as a main responsible body for preserving and protecting the electoral democracy . Democracy as defined by abraham lincoln is completely justified only due to the constitution body like election commission that holds regular and free and fair elections and fulfills the dreams of our constitutional maker by ensuring the active participation of its citizens. Election commission can be called as a safeguard of democracy in true spirit.
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The Legal Lens: A Deeper Look 