Electoral reforms in India

Elections in India remained free from corrupt practises and use of black money till early 1970’s. Post 1970 use of money and muscle power in Indian politics started. In this backdrop several electoral reforms were initiated.
In 1968, the government banned corporate funding of elections. However, this had its own limitations as it didn’t put in place any alternative source of funding.
In 1973, SC gave a ruling that the money spent by the political party and the contesting candidate’s supporters will be calculated as the expenditure by the candidate.
In 1996, the government reduced the election campaigning period from 21 to 14 days. It increased the ceiling on election expenditures at the same time.  It also emphasised that the expenditure of the political parties should be made public. However, no legal mechanism was put in place to enforce it.
In 2013, the SC gave a decision on a PIL filed by Jan Prahri/Jan Chowkidar, an NGO and declared clause 4 of sec 8 of RPA Act, 1951 as unconstitutional. It said that such a provision creates two classes of citizens- one the sitting MLA & MPs and the other, all others who aspire to contest elections. This it said was in contravention to the right to equality granted by Art 14 of the constitution. As of today the elected MPs or MLAs stand disqualified from the day of conviction whether the appeal lies in the higher court or not for a period of 6 years in addition to the period for which he has been sentenced.
Recently in march 2015, India moved closer to wider electoral reforms. EC and political parties reached consensus on issues related to funding, fast track courts for poll offences on the recommendations of Law Commission’s 255th report. There were 8 key areas of convergence, including stopping corporate donations to political parties, setting up fast track courts to try election offences, monitoring third party campaigners, setting up a National Electoral Trust under the control of the EC, vote buying to be controlled within law, and bringing transparency in the process of auditing the accounts of political parties.