(a) whether the Government have taken/propose to take fresh initiatives in consultation with political parties on contentious issues relating to electoral reforms;
(b) if so, the details of agenda discussed in the meetings and decisions arrived at; and
(c) the present status of electoral reforms?
MINISTER OF LAW, JUSTICE & COMPANY AFFAIRS AND SHIPPING (SHRI ARUN JAITLEY)
(a) to (c) The Government is continuously exploring ways and means of bringing about
reforms in electoral laws. In this connection, it may be stated that the Government has before
it the recommendations made by different bodies/individuals like the Dinesh Goswami Committee,
the Indrajit Gupta Committee, the Election Commission of India, the Law Commission of India,
etc. and various proposals based on their recommendations are required to be discussed with
the political parties at an appropriate time and concretized. In this connection, the
Government has also held a meeting with political parties on 13.5.2000 on the subject of
fresh delimitation of electoral constituencies, in view of the fact that the existing
constitutional embargo in this regard is going to expire with the publication of the
figures of the current decennial population census, and certain other allied issues.
Based on the consensus arrived at among the political parties in that meeting, the
Government has introduced the Constitution (Ninety-first Amendment) Bill, 2000 in the Lok
Sabha on 27.11.2000 seeking to extend the constitutional embargo on undertaking readjustment
of electoral constituencies up to the year 2026 as also rationalization of the constituencies,
including those reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, based on the
population census for the year 1991, without altering the number of seats allocated to
States in the legislative bodies. The process of reform of electoral laws is, however,
a continuous and ongoing process and can be carried out only through consensus among political
parties, which is a time consuming process and, therefore, no time frame can be suggested in
this regard. The Government, however, intends to continue interaction with the political
parties on various proposals to carry forward the process of electoral reforms.