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Two Supreme Court Judgments on the Fairness of Elections in India

Document Cited in Related
Published date01 December 2024
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/00195561241277253
AuthorSatish K. Jha
Date01 December 2024
Two Supreme Court
Judgments on the
Fairness of Elections
in India
Satish K. Jha1
Abstract
The commentary looks at the two landmark judgements delivered by the
Supreme Court in recent months on the electoral process in India which is
the lifelines of liberal democracy. The judgements deal with the appointment
of CEC and other election commissioners along with the funding of elections.
In the Anoop Baranwal case, The Supreme Court has tried to insulate the elec-
tion commission from control of the government of the day in order to make
it a neutral institution. In the Electoral Bond case , the court has tried to cre-
ate a level playing field among political contestants during the election. But the
judgements have not been able to plug all holes in the electoral process as many
lacunae remains. The judgements of the Supreme Court will go a long way in
ensuring free and fair election in India.
Keywords
Electoral Bond Case, appointment of CEC and Election Commissioner, free and
fair election , liberal democracy
Liberal democracy stands for two things: constitutionalism and multi-party elec-
toral process. The sanctity of the electoral process is sine qua non of a vibrant and
robust liberal democracy, which requires free and fair elections, active participa-
tion of people with wider representation and above all fair contestation and
a level-playing field among the political parties. The recent judgments of the
Supreme Court of India in two cases, namely, Anoop Baranwal and Association
for Democratic Reforms (ADR), have touched upon these two important aspects
of electoral democracy in India.
Commentary
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
70(4) 935–941, 2024
© 2024 IIPA
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/00195561241277253
journals.sagepub.com/home/ipa
1 Department of Political Science, Aryabhatta College University of Delhi, India
Corresponding author:
Satish K. Jha, Department of Political Science, Aryabhatta College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110021,
India.
E-mail: satish_k_jha2005@yahoo.com

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