New Delhi: The Law Commission of India in its 255th report has recommended that the independent candidates should not be allowed to contest the elections.
Apart from this the commission also recommends that the corporates have to seek shareholders' approval at their annual general meetings before donating funds to political parties.
The report will be submitted to the centre govt by the commission today.
According to Indian Express, the panel has also opposed compulsory voting. Last year, the BJP government in Gujarat had decided to make voting in local body elections compulsory.
Justice A P Shah who currently heads the commission has proposed to make it mandatory for political parties to also disclose contributions less than Rs 20,000 if such contributions exceed Rs 20 crore or 20 per cent of the party's total contributions, whichever is less. For this purpose, the commission has recommended amendments to the relevant election rules as well as the Income Tax Act.
The commission however has not favoured the demand for state funding of elections. It has suggested suitable amendments in law to ensure that the poll expense of a candidate should be taken into account from the date of notification of polls to the declaration of results.
On independent candidates contesting polls, the commission is learnt to have reasoned that it leads to a “proliferation of independents, who are mostly dummy/ non-serious candidates or those who stand (with the same name) only to increase the voters' confusion”.
It has sought amendments to Sections 4 and 5 of the Representation of the People Act to provide for only candidates fielded by political parties registered with the Election Commission of India to contest Lok Sabha or assembly polls.
Amendments to Section 33(7) of the Representation of the People Act to ensure that candidates cannot contest from more than one seat in an election have been proposed by the commission.
The commission also wants internal democracy, party constitutions, party organisation, internal elections, candidate selection, voting procedures and ECI to be governed under the rules.
It has proposed amendment to the 10th Schedule of Constitution to vest the power to disqualify an MP or MLA on ground of defection in the President or the Governor, as the case may be, instead of the Speaker (Lok Sabha or assembly) or Chairman (Rajya Sabha or Legislative Council). The President/ Governor would, however, only act on the advice of the ECI. Such a measure, the commission feels, would help preserve the integrity of the Speaker's office.
The commission also wants a three-member collegium comprising the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha (or leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha) and the Chief Justice of India to select the election commissioners.
The panel has proposed that the concept of “Paid News” should be made a punishable offence.
On the contentious issue of regulating opinion polls, the commission has said the credentials of the organisation conducting the opinion poll should be make public along with the method in which the poll was conducted.
