The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) examining the legal and constitutional feasibility of simultaneous elections in India on Monday heard Congress veteran P Chidambaram, a select group of Padma awardees and two policy research institutes on the scope and relevance of the proposal.Former Rajya Sabha MP Tarlochan Singh and historian Meenakshi Jain, who were recently nominated to the Rajya Sabha, were among the Padma awardees who deposed before the panel.Tarlochan is learnt to have argued that no amount of electoral reforms would help Indian democracy unless a new and reworked anti-defection law was passed to proscribe defections and punish those who switch parties at will.The remit of the panel is, however, limited to the two draft Bills — the Constitution Amendment Bills amending Article 83 (which deals with the duration of Houses of Parliament) and Article 172 (which deals with the duration of state Legislatures).These Bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha by the Law Minister and referred to the panel for further examination after the Union Cabinet approved these Bills on December 12, 2024.Lok Sabha sources said a strong deposition against simultaneous elections came from former Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday. He is learnt to have termed the draft laws as unconstitutional.Sources said the former minister and sitting Rajya Sabha MP called for the Bills to be junked as “these are against federal principles of the Indian Constitution”.Chidambaram’s principal argument was that the term five year tenure mentioned in Articles 83 (2) and 172 of the Constitution for Lok Sabha and state assemblies should be read to mean that it is the basic feature of the Constitution and cannot be disturbed.The veteran Congressman is said to recall how the Emergency time amendment to the Constitution to extend the tenure of Lok Sabha to six years was later reversed by Parliament.“Parliament reversed the amendment made to the Constitution during the Emergency because had that not been done a party in power could tomorrow extend the tenure of Lok Sabha to 10 years or 15 years or two years. Who will decide what is a proportional raise or reduction to the tenure of the House currently fixed at five years by Article 83 (2) of the Constitution?” sources said citing Chidambaram’s deposition.The Bills under examination say that for simultaneous polls to happen, the President will notify the date of the first sitting of the Lok Sabha after a General election as the “appointed date”.The Bills provide for the tenure of state assemblies to be curtailed.”The tenure of all state assemblies constituted by elections held after the appointed date and before the expiry of the full term of Lok Sabha will be only for the period ending up to the subsequent General elections to the Lok Sabha,” the draft laws add.The JPC also heard Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and Nation First Policy Research and Change Foundation.After the meeting JPC chairman PP Chaudhary said the Padma awardees brought a civil society perspective to the debate.The JPC has to submit its report to the Parliament in the winter session of Parliament.