The State Election Commission Uttar Pradesh (SEC UP;

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...

: ), commonly known as the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission, is an independent constitutional body responsible for conducting elections for

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

and

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

local bodies—the constitutionally mandated third-tier of government in India—in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

(UP). The commission is headed by the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commissioner, at present, Manoj Kumar.

Origins

The commission was constituted by the

Government of Uttar Pradesh The Government of Uttar Pradesh (ISO: Uttar Pradesh Sarkār; often abbreviated as GoUP) is the subnational government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with the governor as its appointed constitutional head of the state by the President of I ...

in April 1994, after the passing of 73rd and 74th

amendments of the Constitution of India An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. They ...

, which mandated for a permanent indissoluble local bodies in rural and urban areas with a maximum term of five years, and allowed for the creation of state election commissions in all states to conduct elections to local-self government bodies under the newly-inducted article 243K.

Functions

The commission is responsible for conducting elections to ''

gram panchayat Gram Panchayat () is a basic village-governing institute in Indian villages. It is a democratic structure at the grass-roots level in India. It is a political institute, acting as cabinet of the village. The Gram Sabha work as the general bod ...

s'' (village councils), ''kshetra panchayats'' (regional councils), and '' zila panchayats'' (district councils) under the ''U. P. Panchayati Raj Act, 1947'' and ''U. P. (Kshettra Panchayats and Zila Panchayats) Adhiniyam, 1961'' and ''

nagar palika parishad In India, a Municipal Council (also known as Municipality, Nagar Palika, or Nagar Palika Parishad) is an Urban Local Body that administers a city of population 100,000 or more. However, there are exceptions to that, as previously Nagar Palikas co ...

s'' (municipal councils), ''

nagar panchayat A nagar panchayat (town panchayat; ) or Notified Area Council (NAC) in India is a settlement in transition from rural to urban and therefore a form of an urban political unit comparable to a municipality. An urban centre with more than 12,000 ...

s'' (city councils), and

municipal corporation A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally owne ...

s under the ''U. P. Municipalities Act, 1916'' in the state of Uttar Pradesh. District magistrates—under the general superintendence of the state election commission—are responsible for the conduct of local body elections in their respective

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

. The commission is also vested with the power of general supervision of preparation of

electoral roll An electoral roll (variously called an electoral register, voters roll, poll book or other description) is a compilation that lists persons who are entitled to vote for particular elections in a particular jurisdiction. The list is usually broke ...

s for local body election in Uttar Pradesh. The

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, di ...

—the constitutional body responsible for conducting presidential, vice-presidential,

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...

and state legislative elections in India—can share its electoral rolls with the state election commission, but the latter is otherwise independent from it, whilst being vested with the same powers as the former for local body elections.

Organisation

The commission is headed by the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commissioner, who is in turn assisted by an additional commissioner; three joint commissioners; two officers on special duty, one of whom also acts the head of department (HoD); a secretary; and two deputy election commissioners.

Uttar Pradesh State Election Commissioner

The Uttar Pradesh State Election Commissioner acts as the head of the state election commission. Usually a retired officer of the

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

(IAS), the commissioner is appointed by the

governor of Uttar Pradesh The following is the list of governors of Uttar Pradesh. The list also includes governors of the United Provinces of pre-independent India as well as Independent India from 15 August 1947 to 25 January 1950. The province was renamed Uttar Prade ...

on the

chief minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

's aid and advise and has the same immunity as a high court judge and therefore, can only be removed from office via

impeachment Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

by both houses of the

Indian parliament The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the ...

. The commissioner has a tenure of six years or till she/he attains the age of 68, whichever is earlier. The current state election commissioner is Manoj Kumar, a retired UP cadre IAS officer of 1982 batch.

References

Bibliography

Book

Paper

External links

* {{Authority control 1994 establishments in Uttar Pradesh

Election Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

Elections in Uttar Pradesh Government agencies established in 1994