 bill no 128 of  2017 the constitution (amendment) bill, 2017 by shri nishikant dubey, mp a billfurther to amend the constitution of indiabe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-eighth year of the republic of  india as follows:—1  (1) this act may be called the constitution (amendment) act, 2017(2) it extends to the whole of indiashort title, extent and commencement5(3) it shall come into force on such date, as the central government may, by notificationin the official gazette, appointamendment of article 832 in article 83 of the constitution, in clause (2), after the existing proviso, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:—10"provided further that where the house of the people is dissolved earlier thanthe said period of five years, the duration of the house constituted immediately after such dissolution may, on a report made by the election commission to this effect, be extended or curtailed by a period up to two years in order to synchronise the holding of elections to the house of the people and the state legislative assemblies"3 in article 172 of the constitution,—amendment of article 172(i) in clause (1), after the existing proviso, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:—5''provided further that where the legislative assembly is dissolved earlier than the said period of five years, the duration of the legislative assembly constituted immediately after such dissolution may, on a report made by the election commission to this effect, be extended or curtailed by a period up to two years in order to synchronise the holding of elections to the legislative assembly with the elections to the house of the people''; and10(ii) after clause 2, the following clause shall be inserted, namely:—15''(3) the central government shall, in consultation with the election commission, within six months from the date of commencement of the constitution (amendment) act, 2017 by notification in official gazette, specify the state legislative assemblies, the duration whereof may be extended or curtailed in order to synchronise the elections to such legislative assemblies with the next elections to the house of the people"4 after article 326 of the constitution, the following article shall be inserted, namely:—insertion of new article 326a''326a the elections to the house of the people and to the legislative assembly of every state shall be held simultaneously"simultaneous holding of elections to house of the people and legislative assemblies of the states statement of objects and reasonsindia is the world's largest democracy as many as eighty-one crore people are registered as eligible voters with the election commission of india, which has been entrusted with the powers to hold elections to both the house of the people and the state legislative assemblies though the house of the people and the state assemblies have a fixed tenure of five years, the expiration of their term does not synchronise as a result, the house of the people and different state assemblies go to polls at different times as a result, we often find elections being held in the country in one part or the otherof late, the idea of frequent elections is being challenged on various grounds the first among these is that the conduct of elections is an enormous exercise administratively the entire administrative machinery and the security apparatus have to be mobilised to ensure smooth and fair conduct of elections if the elections to the house of the people and the state assemblies are held together, a redundant duplication of election exercise can be avoidedsecondly, the conduct of elections at such scale involved huge expenditure, both by the government and political parties as per estimates of the election commission, the government expenditure for holding the house of the people elections in 2009 was rs 1115 crore, which increased to rs 3870 crore in 2014 unofficial estimates peg the government expenditure incurred in holding elections to the bihar legislative assembly in 2015 at rs 300 crore precious tax-payers' money can be saved and utilised for developmental activities if, state assembly elections are held together with the house of the people electionsthirdly, it is not only the government, but political parties also incur huge expenditure on elections there are unscrupulous elements among political parties who freely use dubious money in elections it is among the top agenda of the present government that the role of such dubious money in elections is minimised, if not eliminated towards this end, the simultaneous elections to the house of the people and the state legislative assemblies will serve a long way since there will be lesser opportunities for use of dubious moneyfourthly, the process of government is severely affected due to imposition of model code of conduct to quote from the seventy-ninth report (2015) of the standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice:—"the imposition of model code of conduct (mcc) puts on hold the entire development programme and activities of the union and state governments in poll bound state it even affects the normal governance frequent elections lead to imposition of mcc over prolonged periods of time this often leads to policy paralysis and governance deficit"besides, there are issues such as disruption of normal public life, resort to populist measures by ruling parties, etc which weight heavily in favour of conducting simultaneous elections to the house of the people and the state legislative assembliesthere are, however certain challenges to holding simultaneous elections there are questions over operational feasibility of such a huge exercise above all, the synchronisation of tenure of  the house of the people and the state legislative assemblies, to begin with and also when any popular house is dissolved prematurely, is a major political challengewith the above objectives in view, the bill seeks to amend the constitution with a view to:—(i) insert a new article 326a in the constitution to provide for simultaneous elections to the house of the people and the state assemblies;(ii) to amend article 83 of the constitution to provide that in case the house of the people is dissolved before completing its full terms, the duration of the next the house of the people may be extended or curtailed by up to two years to synchronise the elections to the house of the people with the elections to the state assemblies;(iii) amend article 172 of the constitution to provide that in case a state legislative assembly is dissolved before completing its full term, the duration of the next assembly may be extended or curtailed by up to two years to synchronise the elections to the assembly with the elections to the house of the people; and(iv) make a transitional provision that on commencement of the bill, the central government shall, in order to coincide the elections of state assemblies with the elections to the house of the people, take a decision, in consultation with the election commission, regarding extending or curtailing the duration of state legislative assemblies the bill seeks to achieve the above objectivesnew delhi;nishikant dubeyjune 29, 2017 financial memorandumclause 4 of the bill vide proposed article 326a provides for simultaneous holding of elections to the house of the people and legislative assemblies of the states by the election commission of  india the bill, if enacted, will involve expenditure, recurring and non-recurring, from the consolidated fund of india however, it is not possible to assess the actual financial expenditure likely to be incurred at this stage annexure extracts from the constitution of india83 duration of houses of parliament,—(1) the council of states shall not be subject to dissolution, but as nearly as possible one-third of the members thereof shall retire as soon as may be on the expiration of every second year in accordance with the provisions made in that behalf by parliament by law(2) the house of the people, unless sooner dissolved shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and no longer and the expiration of the said period of five years shall operate as a dissolution of the house:provided that the said period may, while a proclamation of emergency is in operation, be extended by parliament by law for a period not exceeding one year at a time and not extending in any case beyond a period of six months after the proclamation has ceased to operate  172 duration of states legislatures,—(1) the legislative assembly of every state, unless sooner dissolved, shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and no longer and the expiration of the said period of five years shall operate as a dissolution of the assembly:provided that the said period may, while a proclamation of emergency is in operation, be extended by parliament by law for a period not exceeding one year at a time and not extending in any case beyond a period of six months after the proclamation has ceased to operate(2) the legislative council of a state shall not be subject to dissolution, but as nearly as possible one-third of the members thereof shall retire as soon as may be on the expiration of every second year in accordance with the permission made in that behalf by parliament by law  lok  sabha———— a billfurther to amend the constitution of india————(shri nishikant dubey, mp)gmgipmrnd—956ls(s3)—20-07-2017