Law panel looks into syncing of local body polls with state, LS

The 22nd Law Commission is looking into the possibility of synchronising local body elections with assembly and parliamentary polls, the panel's chairman said on Thursday, underlining an expansion of the scope of its yet-to-be-finalised report on simultaneous elections.

- Saptarshi Das

Law Commission chief and former Karnataka high court chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi said that the panel was working on ways to sync local body polls with state and national elections, after a reference from the central government.

A high-level committee, headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind, is also looking into the modalities of simultaneous elections.

"We have been asked to frame our report in a way we can see if the feasibility of local body polls work out... The issues highlighted by the high-level committee were related to local bodies," Awasthi said.

He confirmed that the Law Commission was yet to finalise its report on the issue.

"Earlier in their reference, only Lok Sabha and assembly elections were there, and now they have added the local body elections also. So that is to be synchronised...so we are working on that," he added.

Awasthi said no deadline was set for the report. The Law Commission was a part of the second meeting of the Kovind panel on October 25, where it presented a road map that proposed changes to the Constitution to hold simultaneous elections.