Lok Sabha Extends Tenure of Parl Committee on ONOP Bill

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday gave an extension to the 39-member joint parliamentary committee (JPC), which is examining two bills aimed to usher in simultaneous state and national polls, till the first day of the last week of the monsoon session to submit its report.

- HT Correspondent

NEW DELHI:

The development came on a day attorney general R Venkatramani backed the simultaneous elections plan and told JPC that the legislation did not trample on any feature of the Constitution and were good in law, said people aware of developments.

Venkatramani argued that the two bills — the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, which aims to conduct simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and state assemblies, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which seeks to align the assembly elections of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry for simultaneous elections — did not require any further changes.

But former Delhi high court chief justice DN Patel suggested to JPC that the bills might require additional amendments in the Constitution, said the people cited above.

Both bills are being reviewed by the panel led by senior BJP lawmaker PP Chaudhary. "We received very good inputs and information...One Nation One Election is in the best interests of the nation...The next meeting will be held on 2nd April," he told news agency ANI.