JPC on 'One Nation, One Election' to resume consultation with experts from April 22

New Delhi: The Joint Parliament Committee examining the ‘One Nation, One Election’ (ONOE) Bills will resume its consultation with experts after almost a month on April 22 when it will hear views of former Law Commission Chairman Justice BS Chauhan and senior Congress lawyer-MP Abhishek Singhvi, among others.

The Select Committee on the Income Tax Bill, 2025 will also hold meetings on April 16 and 17 hearing views of Institute of Cost Accountants of India, Institute of Company Secretaries of India, National Financial Reporting Authority, Bharat Web3 Association and NASSCOM. This will be the ninth meeting of the panel, which held its first deliberations on February 24.

The JPC examining the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024 and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 providing for simultaneous elections in Lok Sabha and Assemblies has so far held six meetings since January 8.

In the next meeting on April 22, former Supreme Court judge Justice Hemant Gupta and former Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice S N Jha will also appear before the ‘ONOE’ panel besides Justice Chouhan and Singhvi, who will be the first MP to depose for the multi-party committee.

Earlier, former CJI Justices U U Lalit and Ranjan Gogoi, former High Court Chief Justices AP Shah and DN Patel, former Law Commission Chairman Justice Ritu RajAwasthi and Attorney General R Venkataramani have appeared before the panel.

Niten Chandra, the Secretary of the Ram Nath Kovind-led High Level Committee on ONOE, former MP Sudarshan Nachiappan and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) among others have also submitted their opinion to the panel.

While a section of those who deposed before the panel has supported the legislation, others have raised concerns that provisions like curtailing the tenure of state Assemblies to enable the conduct of simultaneous polls and giving power to the Election Commission to decide on not conducting elections in states will not stand judicial scrutiny.

While being supportive of the concept of simultaneous polls, Justice Lalit is learnt to have suggested rolling out simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in a phased manner. Justice Awasthi felt that  the  synchronised polls would enhance the electoral process by reducing costs, ensuring efficient governance and maintaining the democratic framework of periodic elections.

During the Budget Session, the tenure of the JPC was extended till the first day of the last week of Monsoon Session, which usually starts in the third week of July and ends before August 13.