INTRODUCTION
Superintendence, direction and control of Parliamentary elections as well as Assembly elections of the States/UTs is vested in the Election Commission of India (ECI) by virtue of Article 324 of the Constitution of India, hence it is obligatory and incumbent on the ECI to ensure that each and every election is conducted in a free, fair, transparent and peaceful manner. It has been the endeavour of the ECI that the level playing field for all stake holders, including candidates and political parties is not disturbed and the electoral process is not allowed to be vitiated by any means including misuse of money power.
The Election Commission vowed to respond to the emerging challenges in overall election management, faced with increasing threat from those who were hell bent on distorting the mandate of the electors and as such adopted a structured mechanism to facilitate and monitor election expenditure starting with the elections to the Legislative Assembly of Bihar held in 2010. While curbing the menace of money and muscle power, ECI ensures that general public does not face any inconvenience. In fact, all out efforts are made to ensure that the common man on the ground is sensitized to become a stakeholder in aiding and assisting the ECI mechanism in combating the menace of bribery of voters and other corrupt practices, polluting the electoral system.
OBJECTIVE OF ELECTION EXPENDITURE MONITORING
Election expenditure can broadly be divided into two categories. The first category of election expenditure is the legal expenditure, which is allowed under the law for electioneering, subject to it being within the permissible limit. This would include expenditure connected with campaigning, which is spent on public meetings, public rallies posters, banners, vehicles, advertisements in print or electronic media etc. The second category of the election expenditure is on items which are not permitted under the law, e.g., distribution of money, liquor, or any other item disbursed and given to the electors with the intent to influence them. This expenditure comes under the definition of "bribery" which is an offence both under IPC and under R.P. Act, 1951 (The Act). The expenditure on such items is illegal. Yet another form of expenditure which is coming to the fore in recent times is on Surrogate Advertisements. Paid News and Social Media etc. The purpose of election expenditure monitoring is, therefore, twofold For the first category of expenditure, it must be ensured that all election expenditure on permitted items is truthfully reported and considered while scrutinizing the expenditure account submitted by the candidates. As far as the second category of expenditure including surrogate advertisements, paid news etc., is concerned, it is obvious that it will never be reported by the political parties/ candidates. Expenditure on campaigning through Social Media tends to be underreported, if at all, especially by candidates. The systems should be robust enough to catch such expenditure as well, and not only include it in the account of election expenditure. but also take action against the wrongdoers under the relevant provisions of the law, including lodging of complaints before the police/competent magistrate, if required
Section 77(1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 makes it mandatory for every candidate to the House of the People or a State Legislative Assembly, to keep a separate and correct account of all expenditure incurred or authorized by him or by his election agent, between the date on which he was nominated and the date of declaration of the result of election, both dates inclusive. The total of the said expenditure shall not exceed such amount as may be prescribed under Section 77(3) of R.P. Act, 1951. Under Section 77(2), the account shall contain such particulars as may be prescribed. Rule 90 of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 (The Rules) prescribes varying limits of election expenditure for Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies in each of the States and Union Territories. The particulars, which have to be shown in the election account of the candidates are prescribed in Rule 86 of the Rules. The ceilings on expenditure as prescribed are enclosed at Annexure-A1. Failure to maintain the account is an electoral offence under
Section 171-1 of the Indian Penal Code. (Basic Legal Provisions are given in Annexure -A1)
The incurring or authorizing of expenditure in excess of the limit prescribed under Section 77(3) of R.P Act, 1951 is a corrupt practice with reference to Section 123(6) of the R.P. Act, 1951. The beneficial objective sought to be achieved by making the incurring or authorizing of election expenditure in excess of the prescribed limit as a corrupt practice was elucidated by the Supreme Court in Kanwar Lal Gupta vs Amar Nath Chawla (AIR 1975 SC 308), as follows:
The object of the provision limiting the expenditure is twofold. In the first place, it should be open to any individual or any political party, howsoever small, to be able to contest an election on a footing of equality with any other individual or political party, howsoever rich and well financed it may be, and no individual or political party should be able to secure an advantage over others by virtue of its superior financial strength....
The other objective of limiting the expenditure is to eliminate, as far as possible, the influence of big money in the electoral process. If there was no limit on expenditure, political parties would go all out for collecting contributions.. The pernicious influence of big money would then play a decisive role in controlling the democratic process in the country....
According to Section 78 of R.P. Act, 1951, every contesting candidate is required to lodge a true copy of the account of his election expenses with the District Election Officer (DEO) within 30 days of the declaration of the result of the election. Failure to lodge the account of election expenses within the time and in the manner required by law without good reason or justification may result in disqualification of the candidate concerned by the Election Commission of India under Section 10A of R.P. Act, 1951.
The Supreme Court has held in L.R. Shivaramagowde Vs. T.M. Chandrashekar - AIR 1999 SC 252 that the Commission can go into the correctness of the account of election expenses filed by the candidate and disqualify a candidate under Section 10A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 in case the account is found to be incorrect or untrue. Thus, not only is a candidate required to keep his clection expenses within the ceiling prescribed by the law, he/she has to also maintain a day to day and true account of his/her election expenditure in the prescribed manner, present the account for inspection by the Observer, RO or authorized person and submit it to the DEO concerned within 30 days of the declaration of the result. Exceeding the prescribed ceiling of expenditure can be a ground for an election petition against a winning candidate. A brief summary of the legal provisions regarding election expenditure has been given in this chapter of the Compendium. With each chapter, instructions issued by the Commission from time to time updating specific aspects have been enclosed to give an overall and unambiguous understanding of the measures taken for strict monitoring of election expenditure. This Compendium brings together at one place the relevant provisions of law and instructions to be followed scrupulously by election officers, observers, candidates and political parties for effective monitoring and scrutiny of election expenditure.
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