Page 18 - NIS English 16-31 Jan, 2026

COVER STORY

National Voters’ Day Special

New Rules for the Appointment

The discussion on ‘One Nation- of Election Commissioners
One Voter List’ and ‘One Nation- A process for the appointment of election
One Election’ should continue. commissioners has been established based on
the Supreme Court’s suggestion. Both Houses of
When there is dialogue, when both Parliament passed the Chief Election Commissioner
sides come together, and there is and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment,
Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act,
deliberation, only then will the best 2023, in December 2023. This Act replaced the
solution emerge. This discussion old Election Commission (Conditions of Service
should not stop; it should continue of Election Commissioners and Transaction of
Business) Act, 1991. According to the Search
uninterrupted. This is the best Committee panel, a three-member committee
path in a democracy. comprising the Prime Minister, a Union Minister,
and the Leader of the Opposition, or in the absence
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of a recognised Leader of the Opposition, the
leader of the largest opposition party, will finalize
a name. The appointment will be made after the
frequently, making it necessary to ascertain where they President’s approval. Before the new law came into
live. Often, people register in a new constituency but effect, election commissioners were appointed
fail to remove their names from their previous constit- by the president on the recommendation of the
government, and traditionally, the senior-most was
uency. This sometimes leads to multiple registrations. appointed as the chief election commissioner.
Illegal immigration is a major problem today; therefore,
revision of the electoral roll is essential in a democracy.
Recently, the Supreme Court clearly stated that the Elec-
tion Commission has the statutory and constitutional
right to conduct the SIR process for the electoral roll
throughout the country.
What Baba Saheb Ambedkar said in the Constituent
Assembly forms the basis of electoral reform in India and
also the basis of SIR. He said, “In politics, we advocate
the principle of one person, one vote, one value.” This
is the thinking of the Election Commission today. One
person should have only one vote, and that vote should
have equal value. According to Baba Saheb, the names
of ineligible voters should not be on the electoral roll,
and the names of eligible people should not be omitted.
This is the basis of the Special Electoral Revision (SIR)
campaign today. Under this process, no eligible person
should be left out of the electoral roll and deprived of
their right to vote. Similarly, no ineligible person should
be included. To ensure this, the Election Commission
conducts the SIR process periodically.
Under the constitutional framework, the Election
Commission of India is mandated to prepare the elec-
toral roll under Article 324. The Constituent Assembly
itself granted it these powers. This means that maintain-

16 NEW INDIA SAMACHAR || January 16-31, 2026