Adithya Bijoy Balan, Christ (Deemed To Be University) Bangalore
ABSTRACT
In India, there has been good advocacy for electoral reforms, and the reforms mostly called for include the right to recall, which would allow the electorate to launch a vote concerning the retention of an elected official to their position, and also the right to reject unsuitable or incapable candidates and representatives. Such reforms are deemed crucial for the contemporary political environment. Basically, this system allows the people to recall the politicians whom they feel are not performing their job well enough. Although recalling processes vary from country to country, there are no provisions for it currently under the Indian Constitution or the Representation of the People Act, 1951. In India, this process of recall is constituted at the municipal level in certain states: Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar. There, if two-thirds of the electorate registered in a constituency approve a petition, the administrative authorities are entitled to file a process for the removal of the elected corporator. Recall provisions have, in some form or another, been incorporated into the constitutional systems of many countries: the Philippines, Venezuela, some states in the United States, and Switzerland, among others. Some elected legislators in India are ineffective, corrupt, or inattentive to the constituencies they represent. For the five-year term of office, some lawmakers are non- participants in their legislative assemblies. In this kind of scenario, citizens lack any form of authority and wait until the next election to see a change, wasting time and money while hindering development in the constituencies they represent. This right to recall seeks to rectify this situation by keeping elected representatives accountable all the time, rather than just the time of elections. If implemented at both state and national levels, this reform will go a long way in strengthening the democratic structure of India, which currently struggles with a few impediments. In this paper, the feasibility of implementing the right to recall within the Indian democratic order will be examined while acknowledging potential difficulties and obstacles which may emerge while implementing it.
Keywords: Democracy, Recall, Election, Accountability, Elected representatives.
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