Election Commission Of India
An independent Election Commission has been established under the Constitution in order to carry out and regulate the holding of elections in India.
The Election Commission was established in accordance with the Constitution on 25th January 1950. Originally a Chief Election Commissioner ran the commission, but first in 1989 and later again in 1993 two additional Election Commissioners were appointed.The Election Commission is responsible for the conduct of elections to parliament and state legislatures and to the offices of the President and Vice-President. The Election Commission prepares, maintains and periodically updates the Electoral Roll, which shows who is entitled to vote, supervises the nomination of candidates, registers political parties, monitors the election campaign, including candidates’ funding. It also facilitates the coverage of the election processby the media, organises the polling booths where voting takes place, and looks after the counting of votes and the declaration of results. All this is done to ensure that elections can take place in an orderly and fair manner. At present, there are two Election Commissioners appointed by the President. Chief Election Commissioner can be removed from office only by parliamentary impeachment. The Commission decides most matters by consensus but in case of any dissension, the majority view prevails. Chief Election Commissioners of India Sukumar Sen 21 March 1950-19 December 1958 K.V.K. Sundaram 20 December 1958-30 September 1967 S. P. Sen Verma 1 October 1967-30 September 1972 Dr Nagendra Singh 1 October 1972-6 February 1973 T. Swaminathan 7 February 1973-17 June 1977S. L. Shakdhar 18 June 1977-17 June 1982 R. K. Trivedi 18 June 1982-31 December 1985 R. V. S. Peri Sastri 1 January 1986-25 November 1990 Smt V. S. Rama Devi 26 November 1990-11 December 1990 T. N. Seshan 12 December 1990-11 December 1996 M.S. Gill 12 December 1996-13 June 2001 J. M. Lyngdoh 14 June 2001-7 February 2004 T.S. Krishna Murthy 8 February 2004-15 May 2005 B.B. Tandon 16 May 2005-07 February 2006 N. Gopalaswamy 8 February 2006 - 30 April 2009 Navin Chawla 2 May 2009 - 30th July 2010 Dr. S. Y. Quraishi 30th July 2010 - 10th June 2012 V S Sampath 10th June 2012 to till date |
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