PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 131
well as for State Legislative Assembly constituencies are the same. There is no difference. Consequently, I think that it would be enough if I explain the provisions relating to registration of voters for Parliamentary constituencies. The first principle is what is laid down in Clause 15 of the Bill which says that every constituency is to have an electoral roll on the basis of which election will be conducted. The preparation of an electoral roll is therefore an obligatory thing and a condition precedent for election. The second principle is that for being registered on an electoral roll a person should not suffer from the disqualifications mentioned in Clause 16. He should not be a person who is not a citizen of India; or a person who is of unsound mind or a person who is guilty of offences relating to corrupt practices and election offences, then, he becomes eligible for being enrolled or registered in that constituency. The next principle is that a voter can be registered and that, in one and not more than one constituency. Even in one constituency he is to be registered only once. Then we have what are called “conditions of registration”, which are laid down in Clause 19. One is that he must be ordinarily resident for not less than 180 days during what is called a “qualifying period”. Secondly, he must not be less than twenty-one years of age on the qualifying date.
Now, with regard to qualifying date and qualifying period, I think it is necessary that I should make the position a little clearer. On reading the Bill, the House will realise that there are really two different provisions for qualifying period and qualifying date. There is one qualifying period and one qualifying date for the first electoral roll, and there is another provision for qualifying period and qualifying date for subsequent electoral rolls.
Now, for the first electoral roll the qualifying period is from
1st April 1947 to 31st March 1948. The qualifying date for the first electoral roll is the first day of January 1949. Now, these provisions which I have referred to with regard to the qualifying period and the qualifying date for the first electoral roll are really, so to say, beyond our control now, because they were fixed by the Constituent Assembly when it passed a resolution that the election should take place at a certain