The Election Laws Amendment Bill passed in the Parliament recently seeks to implement certain electoral reforms. One of them is the eligibility date. Till now, only one date – 1 January was considered for deciding eligibility with respect to age. What reform does the Bill seek in this regard?

Correct — C. The Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, passed by Parliament in December 2021, replaced the single qualifying date of 1 January with four: 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October.

Under the old rule someone who turned 18 on 2 January waited almost a year to be enrolled. Four qualifying dates turn enrolment into a quarterly exercise, giving a new voter four entry points in the year — option (c).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Eliminating the idea of eligibility date – enrolment throughout the year — The Act did not abolish the qualifying date. It kept the device and multiplied it, which is the reform the question is after.
• (b)
  Introducing three dates – 1 January, 1 May, 1 September — Three dates is not the change. The cut-offs the Act introduced are quarterly, so the months are January, April, July and October, not January, May and September.
• (d)
  Introducing two dates – 1 January and 1 June — Two dates understates it. The move was from one qualifying date to four, not to a half-yearly pair.

A qualifying date is the date on which you must already be 18 for that revision of the electoral roll.

With 1 January as the sole such date, a citizen turning 18 in February waited for the next year's revision. The Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 amended the Representation of the People Act, 1950 to add 1 April, 1 July and 1 October alongside it.

The same Act allowed electoral roll data to be linked with Aadhaar on a voluntary basis, and made the service-voter provisions gender-neutral by replacing 'wife' with 'spouse'.

Key facts

• The Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 was passed by Parliament in December 2021.
• It made 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October the qualifying dates for enrolment as a voter.
• It permitted voluntary linking of electoral roll data with Aadhaar.
• It replaced 'wife' with 'spouse' in the service-voter provisions, making them gender-neutral.

Common traps

• Answering that the qualifying date was abolished, when it was multiplied to four.
• Assuming the amendment touched the voting age, which has been 18 since the 61st Amendment.

No directly related past PYQ was found.