The parliamentary standing committee on the law ministry, at a meeting on Tuesday, finalised its report on the Constitution Amendment Bill after making some changes, including insertion of a provision that during the electoral process no court can entertain any polls-related petition before hearing the Election Commission.
The committee also brought about a change in Article 123 to prohibit the outgoing Parliament from holding a session in the last three months of its tenure.
The report is expected to be placed before the House today, said committee sources.
'We have finalised the Constitution Amendment Bill after making some changes, and our report will be placed before the House today or tomorrow,' committee chairman Suranjit Sengupta told New Age after the meeting, adding that one of the two proposals placed by the EC was accepted by the committee.
Sources said that the committee heard the opinions of Chief Election Commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda and Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain, and discussed two of their proposals.
The CEC told the committee that the EC had to suffer a lot when the courts issued stay orders or postponed any election just on the eve of the polls, sources said.
As such stay orders had caused the state to incur financial losses and disrupted the electoral schedule, the committee decided to insert the aforesaid provision.
'We inserted a provision that no petition in connection with elections would be entertained by the courts during the polls before hearing the Election Commission,' said Suranjit.
The electoral process begins with the announcement of the polls schedule and ends with the declaration of the election results through an official gazette.
The committee, however, did not accept the EC's proposal to limit the number of election commissioners to three.
'We have kept unchanged the provision for limiting the number of election commissioners, including the chief election commissioner, to five only,' said Suranjit.
The committee also decided to include a clause in Article 123 to keep the Parliament non-functional in the last three months of the incumbent government's tenure to ensure free, fair and credible elections, committee member Rahmat Ali told New Age after the meeting
According to Article 123 of the Bill, general elections will be held in case of dissolution of the Parliament because of the expiration of its term, and in the case of dissolution otherwise, polls will be held in 90 days after such dissolution.
The committee finalised the report in its two meetings held on Monday and Tuesday and expects to submit it to the House today
(Wednesday).
Earlier, the law minister placed the Bill in the Parliament on June 25 and it was sent to the concerned parliamentary standing committee for scrutiny in two weeks.
Source : New Age
