Elections and Election Commission Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The key takes the answer to be the next senior Election Commissioner.

In T.N. Seshan v. Union of India (1995) 4 SCC 611, a Constitution Bench upheld the multi-member Election Commission. At the end of its judgment the Court noted that the Chief Election Commissioner was reported to have gone on leave, leaving the office in the charge of Shri Bagga, and directed that charge be handed over to Shri Gill, one of the two Election Commissioners appointed in 1993, until the Chief Election Commissioner resumed duty. So the functions pass to a fellow member of the Commission.

A Deputy Election Commissioner is a member of the Commission's secretariat, not of the Commission. A delegatee cannot be named while the delegating authority is away, and the President of India does not run the Commission's work during a leave. The judgment, as far as could be checked, does not itself use the words 'next senior'; that is the key's reading of the direction in favour of Shri Gill.

Answer: C

Statements (i) and (ii) are true. The Election Commission conducts elections to Parliament, the State Legislatures and the offices of President and Vice-President, and V.S. Ramadevi was India's first woman Chief Election Commissioner (1990).

Statement (iii) is false: India's first Chief Election Commissioner was Sukumar Sen (1950-58), while S.P. Sen Verma was the sixth. Hence (i) and (ii) only.

Sukumar Sen served as Chief Election Commissioner from 1950 to 1958 and organised the first two general elections, so any statement making another person the first holder is wrong.

Answer: B

Recognition is accorded by the Election Commission.

Under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, the Election Commission of India recognises political parties as national or state parties on the basis of their votes and seats in elections, and allots them reserved symbols. It can also withdraw recognition when a party no longer meets the criteria.

The President has no role in recognising parties, and Parliament makes election law but does not decide the status of individual parties. Since the Commission does this, 'None of the above' is wrong.

Answer: A

The item outside the Election Commission's purview is the election of the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister is not elected by the people or by any electoral college. The President appoints as Prime Minister the leader who commands a majority in the Lok Sabha, so there is no election for the Commission to conduct.

The other three are its work under Article 324: it conducts the elections of the President and Vice-President, elections to Parliament and to the State Legislative Assemblies, and it allots symbols to political parties.

Answer: D

The one that was not a recommendation is Voters Council should be formed to help free and fair elections.

The Dinesh Goswami Committee on electoral reforms reported in 1990. Its recommendations included confining disqualification under the anti-defection law to members who voluntarily give up party membership or defy the party whip on a vote of confidence or no-confidence, holding bye-elections within six months of a vacancy, and measures to discourage non-serious candidates, including higher security deposits.

So options (a), (b) and (c) are among its proposals. Forming a 'Voters Council' was not.

Answer: C

The article amended was Article 326.

Article 326 provides that elections to the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies are held on the basis of adult suffrage. The 61st Amendment Act, 1988 amended it to lower the voting age from 21 years to 18 years, with effect from 1989.

Article 324 vests the superintendence of elections in the Election Commission. Article 325 provides a single general electoral roll and bars exclusion on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex. Article 327 lets Parliament make laws on elections. None of them sets the voting age.

Answer: D

The single transferable vote is used for all of the above.

The Constitution prescribes proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote for the election of the President (Article 55(3)), for members of the Rajya Sabha elected by state legislative assemblies (Article 80(4)), and for members of a State Legislative Council elected by the various electorates under Article 171(4). The Vice-President is elected the same way.

Since every one of the three uses it, choosing only one of them is incomplete. Direct elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, by contrast, use first-past-the-post.

Answer: C

Recognition is given by the Election Commission.

Under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, the Election Commission of India recognises political parties as national or state parties according to their performance in elections, and allots them reserved symbols.

The President has no role in recognising parties, and Parliament makes laws on elections but does not recognise individual parties. Because the Commission does this, 'None of these' is also wrong.

Answer: C

The key gives the Presidential reference on the Gujarat Assembly election, in which the Supreme Court held that periodic, free and fair elections are part of the basic structure (option C). That reference of 2002 arose when the Election Commission put off the elections to the Gujarat assembly after its dissolution. Election Commission of India v. AIADMK (A), S.S. Dhanoa v. Union of India (B) and Sadiq Ali v. Election Commission of India (D) are election cases but are not the ones accepted by the key for this proposition.