 bill no 278 of  2017 the representation of the people (amendment) bill, 2017 by shri rabindra kumar jena, mp a billfurther to amend the representation of the people act, 1951be it enacted by parliament in the sixty-eighth year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the representation of the people (amendment) act,2017short title and commencement5(2) it shall come into force on such date, as the central government may, by notificationin the official gazette, appointamendment of section 243 of 19512 in section 2 of the representation of the people act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to as the principal act), in sub-section (1),—(a) after clause (bb), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—10"(bbb) "constitution of an association or body or political party" meansthe memorandum or rules and regulations of the association or body or politicalparty, as the case may be, containing particulars provided under clauses (a) to (g) of sub-section (4) of section 29a;(b) after clause (e) the following clauses shall be inserted, namely:— '(ea) "ineligible donor" means:—5(i) a government company, as defined in section 29b;18 of 2013(ii) a company that does not comply with the requirements of section 182 of the companies act, 2013; or49 of 1976(iii) any foreign source, as defined under clause (e) of sub-section (1)of section 2 of the foreign contribution (regulation) act, 1976;10(eb) "particulars of contribution" shall be the amount of the contribution received by the political party or the candidate from the political party; the name, address, and pan card details, if applicable, of the donor; the type of contribution, whether cash, cheque, bank transfer or gifts in kind; and the date on which the contribution was received;'; and15(c) after sub-clause (h) the following sub-clause shall be inserted, namely:—'(ha) "qualified chartered accountant" means a member of a panel of chartered accountants, selected for the purpose of inspecting accounts related to the election by the comptroller and auditor general;'"203 in section 10a of the principal act,—amendment of section 10a(i) after the words "an account of election expenses", the words "and particulars of contribution" shall be inserted; and(ii) in the long line, for the words "a period of three years" the words "a period of five years" shall be substituted254 in section 29a of the principal act,—amendment of section 29a(a) for sub-section (5), the following sub-section shall be substituted, namely:—"(5) the application under sub-section (1) shall be accompanied by a copy of the constitution of the association or body, by whatever name called and shall contain—30(a) the name of the association or body and, if applicable, any acronyms or short forms of this name;(b) the mission, aims and objectives of the association or body; (c) the conditions, procedures and requirements for initiating and maintaining membership in the association or body;35(d) the rights, duties and obligations of membership in the association or body;(e) the general organization and powers of internal divisions of theassociation or body, including governing bodies and local bodies at the national, state, district, ward and block levels, by whatever name called;40(f) the procedure according to which the association or body shalldecide the appointment of its president, treasurer, secretary, and other office-bearers;(g) the procedure according to which the association or body shallelect candidates to stand in local, state and national elections;45(h) the procedure according to which general body meetings can berequisitioned and conducted;(i) the financial structure of the association or body and the procedure according to which budgetary decisions are enacted;5(j) a specific provision that the association or body shall bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of india as by law established, and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy, and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of india; and(k) such other matters as may be deemed fit by the election commission";10(b) in sub-section (9), after the words "name, head office, office-bearers, address"the word ", constitution" shall be inserted; and(c) after sub-section (9), the following sub-section shall be inserted, namely:—15"(10) where the election commission is satisfied that a registered national or state political party has failed, refused, or defied, by its conduct or otherwise, to observe the lawful directives issued by the commission, including but not limited to, the provisions of the model code of conduct for guidance of political parties and candidates as issued by the commission in january, 1991 or as amended by it thereafter, the commission may either suspend or withdraw its registration of such party, upon accounting for all available facts and circumstances and giving the party subject to such penalty a reasonable opportunity of being heard in this regard"205 after section 29a of the principal act, the following section shall be inserted, namely:—insertion of new section 29a25"29aa the election commission shall make publicly available, through electronic and print media, the constitution submitted by each political party under sub-section (5) of section 29a and shall ensure that constitution of a political party is available for as long as the party is registered"constitution of a political party to be made available in public domain by the election commission6 for section 29c of the principal act, the following sections shall be substituted, namely :—substitution of new sections for section 29c30"29c (1) every recognised political party shall maintain, according to the financial year, complete and true accounts of all amounts received and expenditure incurred by itmaintenance, audit and publication of accounts by politicial parties(2) every political party shall submit the accounts maintained under sub-section(1) to the election commission within six months of the close of each financial year, duly audited by a qualified chartered accountant35(3) the election commission shall make publicly available, through electronic and print media, the accounts submitted by each political party under sub-section (2)(4) the election commission shall ensure that the accounts submitted under sub-section (2) are available for five years after their submission for public inspection, upon the payment of the prescribed fee4029d (1) the treasurer of a political party or any other person authorised by the political party in this behalf shall, in each financial year, prepare a report in respect of the following, namely:—(a) the particulars of any cumulative contribution in excess of twenty thousand rupees received by such political party from any eligible person in that financial year;declaration and publication of contribution received by political parties(b) the particulars of any cumulative contribution in excess of fifty thousand rupees received by such political party from any eligible company in that financial year;5explanation—for the purposes of this section, a "cumulative contribution"shall be the sum of all donations on behalf of any eligible person or company to a political party within the given financial year(2) the report under sub-section (1) shall be in such form as may be prescribed10(3) notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), the treasurer of a political party or any other person authorised by the political party in this behalf shall, in the report referred to in sub-section (1), disclose the particulars of any contribution received from any eligible person or company if such contribution received by the political party in that financial year exceeds twenty crore rupees or twenty per cent of total contributions, whichever is less1543 of 1961(4) the report for a financial year under sub-section (1) shall be submitted by the treasurer of a political party or any other person authorised by the political party in this behalf before the due date for furnishing a return of its income of that financial year under section 139 of the income-tax act, 1961 to the election commission, having been duly audited by a qualified chartered accountant20 (5) the election commission shall make publicly available, through electronic and print media, the report submitted by each political party under sub-section (1)(6) the election commission shall ensure that the reports submitted under subsection ( 1 ) are available for five years after their submission for public inspection, upon the payment of the prescribed fee2529e (1) every political party contesting an election shall, within thirty days after the date of an election, lodge with the election commission an account of its election expenses, which shall be a true copy of such account maintained by the political partydeclaration and publication of election expenditure by the political partiesexplanation—(1) the payment of any election expenditure over twenty thousand rupees shall be made by the political parties via crossed account payee cheque or draft or bank transfer30(2) the account under sub-section (1) shall be in such form as may be prescribed(3) the election commission shall make publicly available, through electronic and print media, the accounts of election expenses and contributions submitted by each contesting  candidate or their election agent under sub-section (1)35(4) the district election officer shall ensure that the aforementioned accounts are available for five years after their submission for public inspection, upon the payment of the fee prescribed under rule 88 of the conduct of election rules, 196143 of 1961penalty4029f (1) where the election commission is satisfied that a political party, withoutjustification, has failed to lodge audited accounts under section 29c, a contribution report under section 29d, or an election expenditure report under section 29e with the election commission within such time and manner as prescribed, such political party:—43 of 1961(a) notwithstanding anything contained in the income-tax act, 1961,shall not be entitled to any relief under that act in the given financial year;(b) shall be liable to a penalty of twenty five thousand rupees for each dayof non-compliance, up to a period of ninety days:45provided that if default on payment of penalty or lodging of accountscontinues beyond a period of ninety days, the election commission shallwithdraw registration of the political party upon giving a reasonable opportunity of being heard in this regard5(2) where the election commission finds that any of the report or account referred to in sub-section (1) is false in any particular, it shall levy a fine up to a maximum of fifty lakh rupees on such political party(3) where, upon scrutiny of the reports or accounts referred to sub-section (1)or other verification, the election committee finds that a political party has accepted any contribution from an ineligible donor, the party shall be liable to a penalty of five times the amount of that contribution"107 in section 77 of the principal act,—amendment of section 77(a) in sub-section (1), for the words "the date on which he has been nominated", the words "the date of notification of such election by the election commission" shall be substituted;(b) after sub-section (3), the following sub-sections shall be inserted, namely:—15"(4) every candidate at an election shall, either by himself or by his election agent, keep an account of the particulars of the contributions received by the candidate after the date of notification of electionexplanation—all contributions by a political party to its candidate shall be made by a crossed account payee cheque or draft or bank transfer20(5) the total of said contributions shall not exceed such amount as may be prescribed"8 in section 78 of the principal act,—amendment of section 7825(a) in sub-section (1), for the words "an account of his election expenses which shall be a true copy of the account", the words "the accounts of his election expenses and his contributions received, which shall be true copies of the accounts" shall be substituted;(b) after sub-section (1), the following sub-sections shall be inserted, namely:—30"(2) the district election officer shall make publicly available, through electronic and print media, the accounts of election expenses and contributions submitted by each contesting candidate or their election agent under subsection (1)(3) the district election officer shall ensure that the aforementioned accounts are available for five years after their submission for public inspection, upon the payment of the prescribed fee statement of objects and reasonsthe constitution of india and the representation of the people act, 1951 have provided for and protected free and fair elections, removed undue influence of money, crime, or unequally shared information, since 1950 as india's political and financial systems evolve, electoral laws must regularly be reviewed and reformed to ensure that the lacunae which encourage misconduct are removedthe laws governing disclosure of information are crucial for preventing the use of undemocratic, corrupt, and illegal practices to further political ambitions section 29a of the representation of the people act, 1951, specifies the requirements for political parties to register with the election commission, while sections 29c, 77, and 78 provide for the maintenance and lodging of accounts of donations received by political parties and election expenses of candidates to support these current laws, new requirements should be implemented regarding the disclosure of internal practice and financial status of political agents to this end, section 4 of this bill requires a political party to submit a public constitution outlining their internal practices in order to register under the commission, while sections 5, 6, and 7 mandate the provision of financial accounts to the public in order to contest elections in these accounts, the majority, if not all, of contributors should be disclosed, and those parties who fail to follow these rules should be penalized accordinglymany cases of electoral misconduct could be avoided if the punishment, or the possibility thereof, was a strong enough deterrent in the face of significant benefits to a political career the penalty for candidates who fail to lodge election accounts, as provided by section 10a, currently applies for a maximum of three years - an ineffective punishment, as a disqualified candidate can contest the next election, even if the maximum penalty is applied to their case more egregious is the failure of section 29c to impose an active penalty on political parties who fail to lodge elections accounts, instead only preventing offending parties from claiming that year's income tax benefits further, section 29a provides for the registration of political parties, but does not directly allow the commission to withdraw this recognition if significant electoral offences are committed, the commission should be able to sanction political parties through this process the bill, therefore, seeks to amend the representation of the people act, 1951 with a view to:—(a) extend the disqualification period such that the candidate cannot participatein the next election cycle;(b) expresses the specific power of the commission to de-register errant politicalparties; and(c) introduces additional penalties for non-compliance of political partiesregarding the submission of financial accounts, including fines and de-recognition of transgressing political partieshence, this billnew delhi; president's  recommendation  under  article 117(l), 117(3)  and  274(1) of the constitution of  india ————[copy of letter no h11018/10/2017-leg ii dated 30 november, 2017 from shri pp chaudhary, minister of state in the ministry of law and justice and corporate affairs to the secretary general, lok sabha]the president, having been informed of the subject matter of the representation of the people (amendment) bill, 2017 (amendment of section 2 etc) by shri rabindra kumar jena, mp, recommends the introduction under articles 117(1) and 274(1) and the consideration of the bill in lok sabha under article 117(3) of the constitution financial memorandumclause 5 of the bill vide proposed section 29aa, provides for the election commission to make publicly available the constitution of a political party clause 6, vide proposed sections 29c, 29d and 29e provides for the election commission to make publicly available the details of accounts, contributions and expenditure, respectively of a political party the bill, therefore, if enacted, would involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a sum of about rupees five crore may involve as recurring expenditure per annumno non-recurring expenditure is likely to be involved annexure extracts from the representation of people act, 1951 (43 of 1951)     interpretation2 (1) in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—     (a) each of the expressions defined in section 2 or sub-section (1) of section 27of the representation of the people act, 1950 (43 of 1950), but not defined in this act, shall have the same meaning as in that act;     (e) "elector" in relation to a constituency means a person whose name is entered in the electoral roll of that constituency for the time being in force and who is not subject to any of the disqualifications mentioned in section 16 of the representation of the people act, 1950 (43 of 1950);     (h) "public holiday" means any day which is a public holiday for the purposes of section 25 of the negotiable instruments act, 1881 (26 of 1881);     10a if the election commission is satisfied that a person—(a) has failed to lodge an account of election expenses within the time and in the manner required by or under this act; and disqualification for failure to lodge account of election expenses(b) has no good reason or justification for the failure, the election commission shall, by order published in the official gazette, declare him to be disqualified and any such person shall be disqualified for a period of three years from the date of the order     29a (1) any association or body of individual citizens of india calling itself a political party and intending to avail itself of the provisions of this part shall make an application to the election commission for its registration as a political party for the purposes of this act(2) every such application shall be made,—registration with the election commission of associations and bodies as political parties(a) if the association or body is in existence at the commencement of the representation of the people (amendment) act, 1988 (1 of 1989), within sixty days next following such commencement; (3) every application under sub-section ( 1 ) shall be signed by the chief executive officer of the association or body (whether such chief executive officer is known as secretary or by any other designation) and presented to the secretary to the commission or sent to such secretary by registered post(4) every such application shall contain the following particulars, namely:—(a) the name of the association or body; (b) the state in which its head office is situated; (c) the address to which letters and other communications meant for it should besent;(d) the names of its president, secretary, treasurer and other office-bearers;(e) the numerical strength of its members, and if there are categories of its members, the numerical strength in each category;(f) whether it has any local units; if so, at what levels; (g) whether it is represented by any member or members in either house of parliament or of any state legislature; if so, the number of such member or members (5) the application under sub-section (1) shall be accompanied by a copy of the memorandum or rules and regulations of the association or body, by whatever name called, and such memorandum or rules and regulations shall contain a specific provision that the association or body shall bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of india as by law established, and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy, and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of india(6) the commission may call for such other particulars as it may deem fit from the association or body(7) after considering all the particulars as aforesaid in its possession and any other necessary and relevant factors and after giving the representatives of the association or body reasonable opportunity of being heard, the commission shall decide either to register the association or body as a political party for the purposes of this part, or not so to register it; and the commission shall communicate its decision to the association or body:provided that no association or body shall be registered as a political party under this sub-section unless the memorandum or rules and regulations of such association or body conform to the provisions of sub-section (5)(8) the decision of the commission shall be final(9) after an association or body has been registered as a political party as aforesaid, any change in its name, head office, office-bearers, address or in any other material matters shall be communicated to the commission without delay      29c (1) the treasurer of a political party or any other person authorised by the political party in this behalf shall, in each financial year, prepare a report in respect of the following, namely: —declaration of donation received by the political parties(a) the contribution in excess of twenty thousand rupees received by such political party from any person in that financial year;(b) the contribution in excess of twenty thousand rupees received by such political party from companies other than government companies in that financial year (2) the report under sub-section (1) shall be in such form as may be prescribed(3) the report for a financial year under sub-section (1) shall be submitted by the treasurer of a political party or any other person authorised by the political party in this behalf before the due date for furnishing a return of its income of that financial year under section 139 of the income-tax act, 1961 (43 of 1961), to the election commission(4) where the treasurer of any political party or any other person authorised by the political party in this behalf fails to submit a report under sub-section (3) then, notwithstanding anything contained in the income-tax act, 1961 (43 of 1961), such political party shall not be entitled to any tax relief under that act     ———— a billfurther to amend the representation of the people act, 1951————(shri rabindra kumar jena, mp)gmgipmrnd—2992lsls(s3)—22-12-2017